How to use Card Sorting to Improve Service Design
Service design follows the same design thinking processes that we highlighted in previous articles about design thinking. However, when it comes to the prototyping stage, there should be a coherent structure for the information structure provided to the consumers during their product or service usage. Organising the information can be represented in the tagging system in a grocery store, the content provided on a website or organising the gates in the airport terminals. One of the effective methods that help us to organise the information structure based on the consumers’ understanding is the card sorting method.
Card sorting is one of the methods used to design and organise the information used by the consumer in the final product or service. It aims to eliminate any biases or mislead by organising of the information by letting a group of participants organise the information used on the service through printed or digital cards. Each card represents one of the elements used in the service’s information design, such as tags or labels, and the participants work individually or in group discussions to organise the elements based on the relation between them. The card sorting can use printed cards, sticky notes, and online card-sorting tools. We can also use it during the design research to analyse data and check What is the Thematic Analysis? And How to Apply in Design Thinking.
The card sorting is closely related to the information architecture. While the main elements of the information architecture are navigation, search, classification, and labelling, card sorting is the tool that can be used to ensure user-friendly classification and labelling for the information in the service. It can be applied in different fields, including product design, service design, and user experience. According to the UPA Annual Salary Survey, around 52% of UX designers use card sorting to organize their information. Understandting the ergonomics principles related to the user experience can be helpful to learn about the user context of use while collecting information through the card sorting method.
Related articles:
- How to Use Task Analysis Grid in Service Design
- 4 Service Design Tools to Focus on Consumers’ Needs
- Service Design Thinking: Putting Your Consumer First
Why Should We Use Card Sorting in Service Design?
When it comes to organizing the information that should be visible to the consumer, we face several challenges, including but not limited to biased decisions and building reflective and easy-to-understand information structures. In behavioural design, the user experience information becomes even more complicated as it describes their behaviour when using the product or service. Card sorting can help to overcome most of these challenges as it can help to achieve the following advantages:
- The card sorting involves the consumers themselves rather than the developing team. The representative sample of the consumers organizes the data based on their demographic information, persona characteristics and understanding of the data provided. This practice helps to build a tailored service design for the market segment and directly address their needs.
- Card sorting is a quick tool to reach a user-friendly taxonomy for the information, as the practice takes around 20 – 60 minutes to get an agreed organisation for the information.
- The card sorting is flexible. It can be done through group discussion, individually, in a live meeting or through online tools.
What are the Types of Card Sorting?
There are two types of card sorting; the open card sort and the card close sort, as follows:
- Open Card Sort – The participants organize the information given to them into categories that they create from scratch. This type can help us build a taxonomy that is very common among consumers as they have chosen the categories themselves. However, this model can make the design team lose control over the categories that will be presented in the final product as it is an open-mode
- Closed Card Sort -The facilitator presents the categories used to organize the information elements. The participants organize the data under its related categories. While this type is more controllable, it defines the categories for the participants. These categories are developed by the design team rather than the consumer, which may not be representative categories compared with the open card sort type.
In terms of the attendees, the card sorting is organised as follows:
- Personal session with the facilitator, as the participants meet with the facilitator and do the sorting individually
- Group session where each one of the attendees does the card sorting individually with the supervision of the session facilitator
- Group session where participants share their thoughts and ideas loudly and collaborate in sorting the data
- Online sorting through card sorting websites where participants sort the cards remotely
Steps for Card Sorting for Service Design
In order to conduct successful card sorting sessions, we should consider three phases: before the session, during the session, and after the session. The video below shows how to use the Card Sorting tool.
Before the Card Sorting Session
Before the start of the session, the facilitator needs to prepare it based on the following:
- Plan the card sorting type that will be used during the session. This will reflect on the tools that will be used, it can be either printed cards, sticky notes, and pens, or a computer to access the online card sorting tools.
- Invite the participants who will contribute to the session; it should be a representative sample based on the marketing research conducted in collaboration with the service design process.
- Define the categories that will be presented to the participants. If the session is based on open card sort, the definition of the categories should be open for the participants to decide.
- Make sure to limit the number of information items to increase the efficiency of the session. Normally, the expected items can range between 30-100 items.
Prepare a meeting room where the participants need to meet for around 60 minutes to conduct the card-sorting
During the Card Sorting Session
During the session, the facilitator introduces the service design project and the information that needs to be organized. Each card should include one element or idea. If the session is based on individual work, there should be copies of the cards for all the attendees. Also, if the session is based on a closed card sorting, the facilitator needs to define the different categories that will be used to organise the elements.
Then, the participants start to sort the information they have based on the relation between them. If the session is based on group discussion, the participants speak loudly to share their ideas when adding or removing items from each group.
The colour cards can be used to organize the elements into groups. In the open card sorting, the participants can write the related elements in similar colour cards and give each category of elements. If the categories are too large, the facilitator asks the participants to group some categories. In some cases, the facilitator can start work open card sorting to define the name of the categories based on the participants’ point of view and then use these categories in a closed card sorting.
After the Card Sorting Session
Before the end of the session, the facilitator takes a photo of the sorted information to analyse it after the session as below:
- Understand which cards appear together
- Understand which cards are shared in the same category
- Use the participants’ comments as part of the qualitative information
Once the data are analysed, the facilitator organises it in a spear sheet document and shares it with the design team to use in the prototype for the service design.
Two of the common questions about card sorting are highlighted below:
Online Card Sorting Tools
In addition to the physical cards, the online card sorting tools can help access more participants, especially if they live in a different place or country. Below are examples of the online card-sorting tools:
One of the challenges that designers face in service design projects is to organise the information in a usable and easy to identify for the consumers. Card sorting is one of the efficient tools that can achieve through participating in a consumer sample to sort the information based on their demographic information. The card sorting tool helps to build targeted solutions that directly focus on the consumers’ needs and improve access to the information used in the service design project. Card sorting has proven efficient because it doesn’t take long time and effort. All the design team needs to do is invite the participants to attend the physical session or do the card sorting online.
