Archive for the ‘Usability’ Category

The iLibrarian Card Sorting from A–Z series of posts was based on a 3-hour hands-on workshop I give on the topic. Here’s a wrap up of all 9 articles.

• Card Sorting from A–Z: Overview
• Card Sorting from A–Z: Part I – Why and When
• Card Sorting from A–Z: Part II – How to Prepare for a Card Sort
• Card Sorting from A–Z: Part III – How to Implement an Open Card Sort
• Card Sorting from A–Z: Part IV – How to Analyze Results of an Open Card Sort
• Card Sorting from A–Z: Part V – How to Make Recommendations Based on Findings
• Card Sorting from A–Z: Part VI – How to Implement a Closed Card Sort
• Card Sorting from A–Z: Part VII – How to Analyze Results of a Closed Card Sort
• Card Sorting from A–Z: Part VIII – Making Recommendations After a Closed Card Sort

This is part of a series of posts which is based on a 3-hour hands-on workshop I offer on this topic. Be sure and check out the preceding posts:

Card Sorting from A–Z: Overview
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part I – Why and When
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part II – How to Prepare for a Card Sort
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part III – How to Implement an Open Card Sort
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part IV – How to Analyze Results of an Open Card Sort
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part V – How to Make Recommendations Based on Findings
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part VI – How to Implement a Closed Card Sort
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part VII – How to Analyze Results of a Closed Card Sort
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part VIII – Making Recommendations After a Closed Card Sort

Online Card Sorting Tools

• Websort: I have used Websort many times to conduct online card sorts. They have an easy to use interface which lets you create card sorting studies within minutes, and they have a variety of ways to view the data afterward.

 



• OptimalSort: I haven’t used OptimalSort extensively, but it offers a variety of tools and reporting options for conducting online card sorts as well.

Additional Resources

Books

• Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by Louis Rosenfeld, Peter Morville
• Card Sorting the Book by Donna Mauer
• Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things by George Lakoff

Articles

• Maurer, Donna and Todd Warfel. Card Sorting: a definitive guide, Boxes and Arrows, Sept 2007.
• Robertson, James. Information Design using card sorting, Papers & Case Studies, Feb 2001.

Blog Posts

• 18 Usability Resources for Librarians

This is part of a series of posts which is based on a 3-hour hands-on workshop I offer on this topic. Be sure and check out the preceding posts:

Card Sorting from A–Z: Overview
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part I – Why and When
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part II – How to Prepare for a Card Sort
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part III – How to Implement an Open Card Sort
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part IV – How to Analyze Results of an Open Card Sort
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part V – How to Make Recommendations Based on Findings
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part VI – How to Implement a Closed Card Sort
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part VII – How to Analyze Results of a Closed Card Sort

How to Make Recommendations After a Closed Card Sort

After you have finished your analysis of the closed card sort, you should definitely have some recommendations to make based on your findings.  It may be helpful to create a final document, or summary including both your key findings from the study as well as your recommendations and strategies.  This way, your client/supervisor/committee can then decide on the next action to take based on your findings.  Your document may look something like this:

Next: Tools and Resources

This is part of a series of posts which is based on a 3-hour hands-on workshop I offer on this topic. Be sure and check out the preceding posts:

Card Sorting from A–Z: Overview
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part I – Why and When
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part II – How to Prepare for a Card Sort
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part III – How to Implement an Open Card Sort
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part IV – How to Analyze Results of an Open Card Sort
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part V – How to Make Recommendations Based on Findings
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part VI – How to Implement a Closed Card Sort

How to Conduct Analysis of a Closed Card Sort

Analysis of a closed card sort is a bit different that that for an open one. With a closed card sort you will be looking for:

• Whether articles have made it in to the categories you expected them to based on the open card sort
• How many articles have been miscategorized into those categories as well.

Analyzing the Data

 

1. The first step in analyzing the data is to plug all of the information into a spreadsheet, or if you have done an online sort, to download the Excel-compatible file.

 


Download analysis spreadsheet

 

2. Next, you will want to start to determine which categories did the best in capturing all of their related items, and which categories recieved items errantly placed into them. While there are of course no right or wrong answers, you will have made certain assumptions based on your open card sort. Now you are testing that these assumptions are true – for example if everyone in your open sort placed an item such as career opportunities into an “About the Library” category, and therefore you determined that an “About the Library” category was necessary, you now will want to make sure than everyone in this closed sort, also placed career opportunities into the “About the Library” category.

 

3. One way to go about this analysis is to make a list of each category, and then, looking at the spreadsheet, determine which content items have been unexpectedly placed into which categories. Your list may look something like this:

 

Closed Card Sort Analysis (4 Participants)   About the Library Miscategorized – 0   My Account Miscategorized – 0   Collections Miscategoried – 5 Digital Audiobook Collection x3 Hot Titles Electronic Books   Online Resources Miscategorized – 0   Events Miscategorized – 1 Teen Anime Clubs Almost nothing in here, may want to consider whether an Events category is necessary.   Programs & Services Miscategorized – 2 Volunteer at the library Library News Feeds   Recommended Miscategorized – 0   Misc. – 3 Library News Feeds Pathfinders x2

 

 

4. A list such as the one above tallies the errant articles or items which have been placed into each category, it takes a bit of a closer inspection, however to determine how successful each category was in capturing all of its related items. If you list each of the errant items under your total tally, you will then begin to see which categories didn’t do so well in that area. For example, at first glance, the Online Resources category seems very succesful – its miscategorized items are at 0, however, it didn’t do so well capturing all of its related items when you look closer – Library News feeds has been placed in 2 other categories, Electronic Books and Digital Audiobooks have both been placed in another category by multiple participants.

 

5. Your next task is to bring your analysis to this closer, more focused level. So your next document, expands upon the first one and may look something like this:

Next: How to Make Recommendations After a Closed Sort

This is part of a series of posts which is based on a 3-hour hands-on workshop I offer on this topic. Be sure and check out the preceding posts:

Card Sorting from A–Z: Overview
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part I – Why and When
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part II – How to Prepare for a Card Sort
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part III – How to Implement an Open Card Sort
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part IV – How to Analyze Results of an Open Card Sort

Making Recommendations

You may want to summarize your analysis for your client/department as well as provide them with your raw data.  One way to do this is to create a recommended list of categories based on your open card sort analysis, and suggest that they be tested in a closed card sort.  You may also want to provide some detail concerning each category’s performance in the card sort.  Your recommendation document may look something like this:

Library Open Card Sort Results and Recommendations

Categories Recommended for Closed Card Sort

• About the Library

• My Account

• Collections

• Online Resources

• Events

• Programs & Services

• Recommended

• Wildcard category: Guides

Data Analysis

• The majority of users placed the “About Us”-themed items into a category titled “About the Library”.

• ¼ of participants placed some of these items into a “Friends of the Library” category.

   

• All of the participants placed the personalized items into a “My Account” or “My Library” category.

   

• The overwhelming majority of Collections-themed items were placed into a “Collections” or “Special Collections” category by participants.

• Half of the participants placed the Audiobook collection into the “Online Resources” category.

   

• The majority of Online Resources items fell into the “Online Resources” category, including the RSS Feeds item.

• Half of the participants also placed Biography Recommended Websites here as well.

   

• The overwhelming majority of Event items were placed into an “Event” category.

• One anomaly seemed surround the Teen Anime Club which was split between the “Events” category and “Programs & Services”.

   

• The Programs & Services items fell mainly into the “Programs & Services” classification, with 1/3 placing the Interlibrary Loan and Ask a Librarian items elsewhere into the “Online Resources” category.

   

   

• There was a general lack of consensus concerning features such as Suggested Authors, Hot Titles, Teen Reads, and Pathfinders.

• Half the respondents placed them into “Guides” or “Recommended” categories while the other half remained split placing them into “Youth”, “Features”, and “Misc.” categories.

• It is recommended to split the closed card sort – offering one with the “Recommended” category and one with the “Guides” category to determine accuracy for each.

   

Next: How to Implement a Closed Card Sort

This is part of a series of posts which is based on a 3-hour hands-on workshop I offer on this topic. Be sure and check out the preceding posts:

Card Sorting from A–Z: Overview
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part I – Why and When
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part II – How to Prepare for a Card Sort
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part III – How to Implement an Open Card Sort

Analyzing the Data

1. The first step in analyzing your data is to plug all of the information into a spreadsheet and start tabulating it. The easiest way to do this is to put all of the items or “cards” in rows in a column on the left and then start to enter all of the different labels your participants created across the top of the spreadsheet as column headers. You can then fill in hash marks across, denoting how many people placed each card into a particular category.

 

2. If you have done an online card sort, you should be able to access a tab-delimited file which can be exported into an Excel file providing you with a jump-start on entering your data, although you will need to format it so that it’s in the above suggested format.

 



download analysis spreadsheet

 

3. As you are entering labels from your participants, it may be very obvious that several people have created labels which are variants on the same thing such as About, About Us, About the Library, etc. It is appropriate at this point to combine all of them into one category and tally up all of the associated cards under that heading.

 

4. Once all the hash marks are entered, it’s a good time to start looking for similarly labeled categories which can be combined, perhaps some which you weren’t sure about at the beginning, but after seeing the same content items placed into each of them you are now ready to make them one category. This is good for labels which may have been things like online services, online resources, online, etc.

 

5. After you have combined these categories, you should start to see your dominant labels emerge as well as begin to be able to identify problem items which have been placed into different categories by the majority of participants.

 

6. All the while it is important for you to pay close attention to how your users are labeling your information – are they creating brand new categories which you aren’t currently using on your website? Are they overwhelmingly placing items into different categories than you expected?

 

7. You may also want to look at a graphical representation of how content items were grouped by your participants. A tree diagram or dendogram is available through web-based card-sorting programs and will display a cluster analysis of your content items.

 

Analysis Tips

• Bear in mind that analysis is part art, part science
• Much of the analysis boils down to “eyeballing” trends in the results
• Expect it to be “messy”

Next: How to Make Recommendations Based on Findings

This is part of a series of posts which is based on a 3-hour hands-on workshop I offer on this topic. Be sure and check out the preceding posts:

Card Sorting from A–Z: Overview
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part I – Why and When
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part II – How to Prepare for a Card Sort

Announce the Card Sort

In order to recruit participants for your card sort, the best place to scout for volunteers is on your website or in your library. This will ensure that you will be getting participants who are actual website users. Announcing a card sort is as easy as putting up a blurb such as this one:

If you are holding a live card sort, you will of course, want to swap the url with an email address to RSVP along with a time, date, and location for the sort.

Conduct the Card Sort

If you have chosen an online sort, you will simply log in to a card sorting tool such as Websort, enter your items and wait for participants to follow your link and complete the sort.

Provide Instructions

Whether live or online, you will want to provide your participants with some guidance as to what to do.  You will want to give them an overview of the process of sorting the items and assigning labels.  You will also want to tell them that they can create an “outlier” pile for those items which they can’t fit into any appropriate group.  If you are giving a live sort, you can also encourage your participants to talk amongst themselves and/or ask questions during the card sort.  Here is a sample of written instructions for an online card sort, however, you may want to fashion this into a script for yourself during a live sort.

During the Card Sort

During the card sort, the main thing to remember is that you are an observer, and therefore must make your best effort not to sway or lead participants in any way.  With that said there are several things you will want to be doing during the sort.

• Take notes of relevant discussions and/or questions
• Be available for questions
• Be ready to ask participants questions and adapt if they seem to be having difficulty with some items
• Hang back and don’t put pressure on participants to finish quickly

After the Card Sort

• Jot down the labels that each group or individual created as well as the numbers from each of the cards that they assigned to that label

• Be sure to thank your participants

Next: How to Analyze Results of an Open Card Sort

This is part of a series of posts which is based on a 3-hour hands-on workshop I offer on this topic. Be sure and check out the preceding posts:

Card Sorting from A–Z: Overview
Card Sorting from A–Z: Part I – Why and When

Choosing Content

When selecting the content to be included in the card sort you should make every effort to choose a representative sample of the entire website, or section of the website you are testing.  While you are selecting a wide range of items, you will want to ensure that you include clusters of items which are similar to one another so that participants can form groups rather than just having a stack of disparate items.  While you can have up to 100 cards, or items, between 20-45 items is ideal.

• Start with the Site Map and choose a few items from each section you’re testing
• Include both existing and future content
• Strive to keep at the same level of granularity when selecting items
• Avoid choosing existing labels or website “channels” as items
• Items can include sub- or secondary titles

Choosing Participants

When recruiting participants to take the card sort, it is paramount that you select the end-users of your website for this task.  Although staff and decision-makers may want to participate, the point of the exercise is to determine user needs and get feedback from the “real people” who use your website.  You also want actual users of your website because they are going to have an understanding of the context of the items included in the sort, whereas others may not.  Take a look at the following list of website items and think about how you would categorize them:

• Backstage Pass to Iapetus: Video
• Phoenix Mars Lander: The Phoenix Mars Lander is headed for the Martian arctic.
• Two Missions to Study Clouds, Aerosols: CloudSat and CALIPSO will give us a unique view of Earth’s atmosphere.
• The Vision for Space Exploration: Follow NASA as we explore: Earth, Moon, Mars and beyond.
• NASA Remains One of the Federal Government’s Best Places to Work in 2007
• Expedition 16: Commander Peggy Whitson leads the Expedition 16 crew.
• Galileo: Journey to Jupiter.
• International Space Station: Learn about the next mission to the International Space Station.
• This Week @NASA: Podcast
• The Boy’s First Flight: The first poem commissioned by NASA’s Art Program.
• Business Opportunities at NASA

Unless you are a user of NASA’s website, you may have a hard time putting labels on these and sorting them into groups – this is why you want to get your website users to participate in the card sorting process.  Although you may choose to have more, anywhere from 8-12 Individual Participants or 5-7 Groups is ideal.  Don’t forget, you can always choose to run additional card sorts and/or closed card sorts following your open ones.

Preparing Cards

If you are running an online card sort, you will be entering your list of items into the software application of your choosing in order to prepare for the card sort.  If you are conducting a live card sort you will want to:

• Print out each of your items onto a standard 3″ x 5″  index card (14 point font recommended)
• You may include secondary or descriptive titles to your items if necessary
• You may include images on the backs of cards
• Place a number on each card which will provide a quick way of identifying it for analysis
• Alternatively you can choose to use post-it notes, however they aren’t as sturdy
• Create multiple packs of cards so you may have several individuals or groups sorting at the same time

Items you will need on-hand

Prior to a live card sort you will want to go through this checklist to make sure you have all of the necessary materials for the sort.

• Multiple sets of cards prepared with content items printed on each
• Blank index cards for each participant to create labels
• Pens
• Rubber bands so participants can sort cards into groups
• A pad and pen for you to write down questions, discussions, and observations

Before the Card Sort

• Shuffle the decks of cards
• Distribute one deck of cards to each individual or group area
• Distribute 10-20 blank index cards to each individual or group area
• Distribute pens and rubber bands to each individual or group area

Next: How to Implement an Open Card Sort

This is part of a series of posts which is based on a 3-hour hands-on workshop I offer on this topic. Be sure and check out the preceding post:

Card Sorting from A–Z: Overview

Why Do a Card Sort?

Have you ever found yourself on a website for several minutes, looking for what you thought was a very simple piece of information, but you couldn’t find it anywhere?  Did you click away in frustration?  This exact scenerio may be happening on your own website, however, through card sorting, you can find out how your website users organize information and prevent this from continuing.

Advantages of Card Sorting 

• Cheap
• Easy
• Fast
• Proven by over 10 years of use
• Provides insight into how your website users label and categorize your information
• Engages users in the information design process
• Increases user enthusiasm & demonstrates the website is designed with user needs in mind
• Increases information findabilty
• Great for gaining buy-in from users and staff

Disadvantages of Card Sorting

• Analysis can be difficult and time consuming
• Results may be too varied

When is a Card Sort Helpful?

• Before deciding the organizational structure of a new website
• During a website redesign
• When adding a new section to an existing website
• When designing a new Database
• When organizing any Collection of items

Next: How to Prepare for a Card Sort

This is another topic that I give a 3-hour workshop on, and since the Personal Digital Archiving Series was so popular I thought I’d share the content of this one as well. To start off, here’s the workshop description:

Web users spend an average of 8–10 seconds and three clicks on your Web site looking for what they need before they get frustrated and click away. Whether you are developing a new Web site or redesigning an existing one, it is imperative to determine an intuitive and usable navigational structure and taxonomy for your user community. Card sorting is a technique used in the information architecture field to determine a classification scheme that speaks to your user population. Discover how to use this quick and inexpensive technique to understand how your users think about your Web site and its content. Learn how to run both an open and a closed card sort, analyze the results, and make recommendations based on your data. This workshop explores both online and offline card-sorting techniques as well as analysis software. Make sure your information is findable and increase usability by involving your users in the process of designing your Web site — they will thank you for it!

Overview

Card Sorting is a method or technique for discovering how website users categorize information so that you can design your information structure in a way which is navigable and findable by your users. The method involves asking participants to sort sets of cards which have items, names, pages, or sections of your website printed on them into groups that make sense to them, and sometimes to assign labels to those groups.

What a Card Sort Can Provide

“Card sorting studies can provide insight into users’ mental models, illuminating the ways they often tacitly group, sort, and label tasks and content within their own heads” – Information Architecture for the World Wide Web.

• Input into a website’s organizational structure
• Suggestions for navigational systems, menus, and taxonomies
• Identify problem or misunderstood areas of your website
• Insight into organizational trends such as whether users prefer to organize your information by format, subject, task, or business group

Different Types of Card Sorts

An Open Card Sort is one in which participants are given a stack of cards, each with website items printed on them, and are asked to sort them into piles of items which seem to belong together. They are also asked to describe each of these piles by writing labels on blank cards and assigning them to card groups.

• Open card sorts are useful at the outset of a new website or redesign project
• They are great discovery tools

A Closed Card Sort is one in which participants are given both the stack of cards and a group of labels and must sort the cards into these existing categories.  These pre-existing labels may be from an established website, or may have been gleaned from an open card sort which was previously given.

• Closed card sorts are useful when you feel that you already have the most effective labels for your website content, yet want to test them out
• They are great tools for validation

Card Sort Variations – Card sorts can be varied and adapted for particular needs, it isn’t necessary to keep strictly to this formula for instance, additional tasks may be added such as user surveys, questions about particular terms, or tasks such as asking participants to set aside cards which they feel should be on the front page, or requesting that participants organize their groups of items into content trees with items placed in a structured order.

Online vs. Live Card Sorting is a matter of taste and what you have the capability of doing.  Live card sorts are very low-tech, cost-efficient, and easy to prepare for, however, involve recruiting volunteers to physically come to a testing site as well as the time commitment of the card sort administator to hold each study.  However, participants do have the opportunity to ask questions during a live card sort and administrators have the opportunity to listen in on participant discussions which can yield additional insight.  Online card sorts can cost money depending on which tool you choose, however, they are quite easy to prepare for and do not require any time commitment from an administrator to give the study – volunteers can sign on and take the test themselves without needing to physically come to a testing site.

Holding Individual vs. Group Card Sorts is also a matter of preference as well as the availability of volunteers to partake in the sorts.  Having groups conduct card sorts has the advantage sparking conversations between participants.  Observing administrators will be able to make note of the points raised during these informal chats which can provide additional insight into the information design process.  A disadvantage, however, is that a group consensus is usually reached to complete the sort which may discount some individual’s mental models of information organization and can be counter-productive for this task.

The staff at UX Magazine has put together a Free eBook: Six Circles – An Experience Design Framework. It is available as a free download in either pdf or ebook format.

“James Kelway started the eBook Six Circles – An Experience Design Framework as an enquiry into how different design principles can be applied to the field of digital product design. This led him to identify six core themes—the “Six Circles”:

• Persuasion
• Behavior
• Visual design
• Usability
• Interaction
• Content

Good products and services combine these themes into better experiences; they induce or entice users into engaging, and guide and assist them as they work through the experiences to reach their goals. Creating these experiences requires a holistic mindset and a multi-disciplinary approach.”

Kristin Zibell writes for UX Magazine about Seven UX Best Practices of Community Design. These are all excellent tips which libraries will want to consider incorporating into their next website redesign.

“A user’s community is more important than ever. Businesses are mining online communities for valuable consumer information that can influence every phase in their go-to-market cycle, from product innovation to fostering repeat purchases. The definitive tome on the social movement, Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, foretells, “Within a few years, a company that doesn’t engage in this sort of activity will look dated… companies that aren’t wired into the groundswell in 2012 will look very 20th century—which is to say, out of touch.”

2011 was quite a year here at iLibrarian! As usual, it’s been a great experience. I’ve been taking a look back at what was particularly popular in terms of posts this past year and I’ve rounded up the top 30 which were the most well-received. I’d love to hear suggestions for future content you’d like to see here at iLibrarian, and I also welcome guest posts! So please go ahead and leave some suggestions in the comments section.

QR Codes

1. A Quick Guide to Creating Library QR Codes
2. QR Code Roundup: 10 Resources for Librarians and Educators

Archiving & Preservation

3. Personal Digital Archiving: An Overview
4. Personal Digital Archiving: Part One – Strategy
5. Personal Digital Archiving: Part Two – Storage Options
6. Personal Digital Archiving: Part Three – File Formats

Mobile & Apps

7. 7 Tools to Create a Mobile Library Website (without Technical Knowledge!)
8. Top 30 Library iPhone Apps – Part 1
9. Top 30 Library iPhone Apps – Part 2
10. Top 30 Library iPhone Apps – Part 3
11. 16 Awesome Instagram Apps & Services- Part I
12. 16 Awesome Instagram Apps & Services- Part II
13. 20 iPad Apps Librarians Should Download – Part 1
14. 20 iPad Apps Librarians Should Download – Part 2
15. 12 Mobile Check-in Applications

Personal Branding & Job Seekers

16. 5 Ways to Set Up A Free Personal Landing Page in 5 Minutes
17. 13 Resources & Tips for Library Job Seekers
18. 7 More Strategies for Library Job Seekers
19. A Librarian’s Guide to the Elevator Pitch
20. 17 Tips to Improve Your Online Presence

Open Access

21. 50 Open Access Resources for Librarians – Part 1
22. 50 Open Access Resources for Librarians – Part 2

Data Visualization Tools

23. 5 Free Online Tools to Create Your Own Infographics
24. 5 Amazing Free Data Visualization Tools

All the Rest

25. 25+ Resources to Create Library Videos
26. 5 e-Book Collections with Over 100,000 Free e-Books
27. 21 Useful Cloud Computing Resources for Librarians
28. 18 Usability Resources for Librarians
29. 450+ Tweeting Librarians List
30. A Quick Guide to Getting Started with Quora