Persona

Posted at: 2:07 PM by Marianna

Persona is involved in a new IA project for the redesign of one of a partner's client website. The deadline for designing a new sitemap for the client's website was tight so we conducted a card sorting exercise to identify possible ways to design the navigation layout.

The Card sorting method was chosen among other user-centred design methods as it is a useful tool Information Architects' use when they have to design a website sitemap in a quick, inexpensive, and reliable way. Card sorting helps efficiently structure the information you have. Furthermore, it gives suggestions for navigation, menus and taxonomies. (Donna Maurer)

The card sorting method usually does not provide results that can be used in the final structure of a sitemap, but can help to resolve several initial issues as:

• Structure the Information under the same group
• Find names for the groups
• Identify categories that the Information Architect might have not included
• Identify whether users want to see information structured with focus on subjects, audiences, or both

In order to organise the test sessions, we formed a list with items that could be placed in each card. Then we created 53 different cards with short labels that participants could quickly read but were detailed enough for the card content to be comprehensible. Seven individuals were invited to participate on the exercise. They were advised to carefully read the cards and try to group them accordingly. Throughout the sessions, we tried to answer some of their questions and took some notes to keep track of insightful comments they made. Finally, at the end of each session, we encouraged each individual to add any other cards he thought would be appropriate, or exclude any he thought were not relevant within any group.

Some individuals preferred to organise the cards in groups and then decide which will be the name of each group (picture 1, 2) while others chose to form a sitemap by first identifying the main navigation sections and place each card under them where appropriate (pictures 3, 4, 5). None of the individuals added any new card, though some of them excluded some which proves that we might have added more cards than those needed.

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

Picture 5

After the completion of the exercise, we gathered all the results and designed a sitemap, taking into account most of the users' preferences. The whole card sorting procedure proved to be very helpful as we wanted to form a navigation layout that would be more user- than project-driven. This method of involving real users before the design helped reach that goal and it also reduced the research time.

Finally, we would like to thank all the participants involved for their time and clever suggestions.

Labels: card sorting, experience, ia, sitemaps