Card Sorting
01 Definition
Card Sorting meaning: Asking users to group and label topics to guide how content should be organized.
Card sorting is a research method where participants sort labeled cards into groups that make sense to them. Open sorts let people name their own groups; closed sorts use fixed categories. It informs information architecture but reflects mental models, not final navigation, which still needs design and testing.
Why it matters
How Card Sorting fits the work
It shows how real users expect content to be grouped, helping teams build menus and categories around user logic instead of internal org charts.
In context
An open card sort showed users grouped returns with shipping rather than help, so the store moved returns into the shipping section.
Practical note
Card sorting suggests groupings but does not validate them; pair it with tree testing to confirm people can actually find items in the resulting structure.