Card sorting is a UX research technique where participants organize content items (represented as "cards") into categories that make sense to them. The goal is to understand how your target users mentally organize and expect to find information, which then informs your product's information architecture (IA)—the structure, hierarchy, and organization of your website, app, or product.
In a basic card sorting study with UserTest Pro, participants are presented with a set of content items or features and asked to group them into logical categories. You define the cards that need to be organized, and participants create groupings based on their mental models. This approach helps answer critical questions: How should we organize our navigation? Which features belong together? What information structure makes intuitive sense to users?
By involving real users in this organizational exercise, you ensure your information architecture aligns with user mental models rather than internal organizational logic. Card sorting is particularly valuable because it reveals how your audience naturally thinks about your product domain and what groupings feel logical to them.
Card sorting is essential for:
Information Architecture Design: Before building out navigation structures, menus, or content organization, use card sorting to understand how users expect information to be grouped. This prevents creating structures that make sense internally but confuse users.
Navigation Structure Validation: Test whether your proposed sitemap or navigation menu aligns with user expectations. If users consistently group items differently than your proposed structure, you've identified a problem before development.
Feature Organization in Products: For SaaS platforms, productivity apps, or complex products, use card sorting to determine which features should be grouped together, ensuring related functionality is intuitively discoverable.
Menu Reorganization: When restructuring navigation menus, category systems, or content classifications, card sorting reveals whether the new structure matches user expectations.
Taxonomy Development: Card sorting helps you develop accurate, user-centric terminology and category names that resonate with your audience rather than relying on internal jargon.
Reducing User Cognitive Load: By organizing information in ways that match user mental models, you reduce the cognitive effort required for users to find what they need.
E-commerce & Marketplace Products: Organize product categories, filters, or sorting options based on how customers naturally expect to browse and find products.
Content Site Organization: Determine how to structure blog categories, knowledge base sections, or documentation to match how users mentally organize that information domain.
| Section | Topic | Jump to |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Getting Started: Creating Your Card Sort | Click here |
| 2 | Preparing & Adding Cards | Click here |
| 3 | Configuring Card Sorting Settings | Click here |
| 4 | Participant Targeting & Distribution | Click here |
| 5 | Launching Your Card Sort | Click here |
| 6 | Best Practices and Tips | Click here |