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Card sorting or web classification

 should categorise web objects (e.g. documents) in 

order to facilitate information task completion or information goals the user has set.

Robertson (2003) identifies the following questions when using card sorting to aid the 

process of modelling web classification systems:

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Do the users want to see the information grouped by: subject, task, business or customer 

groupings, or type of information?

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What are the most important items to put on the main menu?

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How many menu items should there be, and how deep should it go?

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How similar or different are the needs of the users throughout the organisation?

Selected groups of users or representatives will be given index cards with the following writ-

ten on them depending on the aim of the card sorting process:

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Types of document

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Organisational key words and concepts

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Document titles

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Descriptions of documents

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Navigation labels.

The user groups may then be asked to:

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group together cards that they feel relate to each other;

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select cards that accurately reflect a given topic or area;

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organise cards in terms of hierarchy –  high-  level terms (broad) to  low-  level terms.

At the end of session the analyst must take the cards away and map the results into a spread-

sheet to find out the most popular terms, descriptions and relationships. If two or more dif-

ferent groups are used the results should be compared and reasons for differences should be 

analysed.