Remote Card Sorting — Quick, easy and cost effective

A quick guide on how to create a remote Card Sorting Workshop

Not only in the current time, but also outside a pandemic, remote workshops are a great opportunity for companies to ensure structured and digital collaboration with their customers.

By using the method of “Card Sorting” it is possible to capture the users’ way of thinking in order to subsequently derive and develop structures for the design of a software.

Someone who previously attended a non–remote workshop might remember the effort and costs involved. Including a trip to different cities, booking hotels, as well as preparation and wrap–up of the workshop. In times like these, due to digitisation it is possible to schedule remote Workshops and lower all efforts and costs involved.

As workshop experts, we at sovanta made it our business to design these workshops in a way that enables an efficient and qualitative remote–execution. The goal is to keep the effort to a minimum so remote workshops can be spontaneously incorporated into projects.

Card Sorting is a perfect example for doing remote workshops and we are going to show you the solution for a successful implementation in a few steps!

During a Card Sorting Workshop the participants sort and group information which is necessary to develop a system at their own discretion. It is a research method that helps to capture the user’s way of thinking in order to develop structures for designing a software and reduce search times.

First Step: Preparation
Let’s start with the preparation which include a specific selection of participants. Ideally you have 3–4 participants who are required to be familiar with the workshop topics. Thus, the participants should consist of end–users or stakeholders who are very familiar with the end–users.

Tip: A homogeneity between the participants is preferable.

We use the real–time communication tool Microsoft Teams and the collaborative real–time board Miro which enables a digital collaboration between a company and their customers. We use Miro as a digital whiteboard making it the focal point of our remote existence!
The topics can be written down on cards on a Miro board beforehand. During the workshops, participants will be asked to arrange these cards in a new order.

Tip: Use a maximum number of 40–50 cards as a reference

Second Step: Realisation
There are two different ways to conduct a Card Sorting Workshop: Open Card Sorting and Closed Card Sorting.

During an Open Card Sorting Workshop the participants sort and group the cards into new categories and name them. Because this version is generative it supports the information architecture of a new application.

In Closed Card Sorting Workshops participants sort cards into predefined categories and rename them afterwards if necessary. This version is helpful to evaluate or extend existing categories or content.

To provide an easy start (especially for workshop beginners) or to ensure a better understanding of the task, a small exercise might help:
The participants are presented cards on which different animal species are noted. The task is to sort these cards into thematic classification.

For this example you need to write everything on cards that the software is supposed to include. Each card should have a heading of the information that the application contains.
Give them some time to familiarize themselves with the information and then guide them to group the content. There is no right or wrong. Put the cards aside if the participants don’t find a classification or duplicate them if they find double matches.

Once the grouping is complete the individual categories will be named. The following questions might help naming the categories:
Why was this content grouped into one category?
What do they have in common?

Third Step: Evaluation
Afterwards, the results will be analysed and initial findings can be derived.
The whole workshop might help answering some questions like:

What grouping did the participants use?
Which naming is possible at all?
Are the naming terms understandable for the target group?
Does the internally chosen structure correspond to the perception of the test persons?

The evaluation provides new insights in order to develop intuitive and simple structures for a software that is designed for the user‘s way of thinking.

Conclusion
The use of remote workshops does not only allow a location independent accessibility, it also has the advantages of reducing effort and costs as well as a quick and easy implementation. These benefits apply to the participants as well as to the workshop leaders.

By using this research method you’ll quickly get an impression of how participants think and categorize things in their own minds in order to develop structures for the design of a software.