Card sorting in UX design: A complete guide

Designing intuitive information architecture for websites or products is challenging, and card sorting tests are a valuable method to gain insights into user expectations for navigation. This UX research technique involves asking participants to categorize pages of a website using labeled cards, which helps in understanding user instincts for site navigation. Tools like UserZoom and UserTesting assist in setting up these tests, which can be conducted either in-person or remotely. Various types of card sorting tests exist, including open, closed, hybrid, reverse, and modified Delphi, each with different levels of participant guidance and outcomes. While card sorting is a cost-effective and user-centered approach, it may require significant time and can yield surface-level insights with variability in results. Compared to affinity maps, which group information into related themes, card sorting focuses specifically on forming an information architecture, making it especially useful in designing navigation layouts.