by Elizabeth Allen | Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc. | Release Date: May 2018 | ISBN: 9781492037675

Keeping a website or app's navigation and information architecture organized is critical to its usability. Users get frustrated when they can't find what they're looking for and a confusing navigation can hide content that you want them to discover. Fortunately, card sorting is an easy-to-learn research method that can guide you in creating intuitive navigation and information architecture. In this intermediate-level video, UX pro Elizabeth Allen shows you how to plan and conduct a card sort, and then teaches you some simple methods for analyzing both quantitative and qualitative card sort data. By the end of this video, you'll possess the tools you need to get your website or app organized in a way that aligns with user expectations and behaviors. For best results, learners should download a free MultiDendrograms hierarchical clustering tool before starting the course.Understand what card sorting means and when, why, and how to do itExplore use cases for open versus closed card sorts and online versus in-person card sortsLearn to create a welcoming card sorting environment that makes participants want to join inPick up the ability to confidently plan and run your own card sortsLearn how to analyze card sort data and tease out meaningful insightsDr. Elizabeth Allen runs Brazen, a UX research and training consultancy based in Toronto, Canada. At Brazen, she helps companies identify and solve critical UX problems in digital and physical products, and trains design teams on how to do their own research. Her previous experience includes UX research roles at Shopify, Prosper, and Centralis. Elizabeth earned her PhD in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Chicago.

1. Introduction 00:00:41
2. Card Sorting: A Powerful Research Method for Organizing Content 00:02:08
3. How Card Sorting Works 00:06:09
4. Understanding Card Sort Data Types 00:02:45
5. Open vs. Closed Card Sorts: Which to Use? 00:01:31
6. Should You Conduct Your Card Sort In-Person or Remotely? 00:04:16
7. Tips and Tricks for Creating Easy-to-Understand Cards 00:05:32
8. Recruiting Participants: How and How Many? 00:09:48
9. Planning and Prep for In-Person Sessions 00:04:18
10. Planning and Prep for Remote Sessions 00:03:25
11. Structuring Sessions to Run as Smoothly as Possible 00:05:41
12. Making Participants Feel Comfortable 00:03:41
13. Interacting with Participants in an Unbiased Way 00:07:05
14. Easy Ways to Record Participants' Data 00:05:56
15. Using Card Sub-Groupings and Super-Groupings 00:06:28
16. Using Dendrograms to Make Sense of Card Sort Data 00:06:08
17. Creating a Dendrogram Step 1: Preparing the Data 00:06:52
18. Creating a Dendrogram Step 2: Running Multidendrograms 00:03:49
19. Creating a Dendgrogram Step 3: Mapping Your Cards 00:07:42
20. Marrying Qualitative and Quantitative Data 00:03:24
21. Tweaking and Troubleshooting Confusing Dendrograms 00:03:01
22. Creating Candidate Information Architectures 00:03:20
23. What Next? Common Options for Next Steps 00:04:05