Card Sorting
/kɑːɹd ˈsɔːɹ.tɪŋ/ · Noun · Development · Origin: 1983
Definitions
A user research technique where participants organize topic labels written on cards into groups that make sense to them, revealing users' mental models and informing the structure of navigation, menus, and content categories.
In plain English: A research exercise where you give people labeled cards (like 'Change Password', 'Billing', 'Notifications') and ask them to sort them into piles. It shows you how real people think content should be organized, instead of just guessing.
Example: "We ran an open card sort with 30 participants and discovered that nobody groups 'billing' under 'account settings' — they expect it in the main nav."
Origin Story
The deceptively simple UX method that uses actual index cards
Card sorting as an information architecture technique was popularized by Donna Spencer and other UX researchers in the early 2000s, though the basic technique of sorting concepts into categories has roots in psychology's **Q-sort methodology** from the 1950s.
The method is beautifully low-tech: write each piece of content on an index card, give the stack to users, and ask them to organize the cards into groups that make sense. **Open sorts** let users create their own categories; **closed sorts** provide predefined categories.
Card sorting became the standard way to design website navigation and information architecture. Tools like Optimal Workshop and UserZoom eventually digitized the process, but many UX researchers still prefer physical cards for the richer in-person interaction.
Coined by: UX research community (roots in William Stephenson's Q-methodology, 1953)
Context: Q-sort 1953, UX adoption late 1990s-2000s
Fun fact: The results of card sorts are typically analyzed using dendrograms (tree diagrams from cluster analysis). It's one of the few places where statistical clustering meets sticky notes and marker pens.