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Card Sort

Group Assignment

Purpose

Conduct a card sort study for your project website to understand how different users categorize information.

Instructions

Optimal Workshop Account

  1. Have ONE TEAM MEMBER create a free account with Optimal Workshop.

    • Click the yellow Sign up button in the upper-right.
    • Enter your first and last name
    • User your Madison College email.
    • Create a password.
    • Select the Free Plan.
    • Agree to Optimal Workshop's Terms of Service and Private Notice

    Optimal Workshop Sign up Screen

  2. Share the Username (email) and Password with your team members so you can all work on the same card sort study.

    • You cannot work simultaneously in Optimal Workshop, but it's important that all team members have access to the study.

  3. Once everyone has access to Optimal Workshop, create a new Card Sort study.

    • Click on Studies in the top menu.
    • Click on + Create study

  4. Fill out study information

    • Study type: OptimalSort - Card sorting
    • Study name: Name this whatever makes sense for your team
    • Project folder name: leave this blank
    • Click Create study

    Create a Study Form

Card Sort Setup

Cards tab

Cards tab

  1. A minimum of 12 cards (the free plan limits you to 20 cards).

  2. Under Options (on the right).

    • You may add tooltip descriptions to some of your cards if you need additional information on the meaning of your card.
    • Keep the other default options.
    • Card Options

Categories

Categories

  1. Keep the card sort Open — Participants create and name their own categories

Message & Instructions tab

Message & Instructions tab

  1. You may add your own messages here, but it is not required.

Questionnaire tab

Questionnaire tab

  1. Scroll down to the Pre-study questions section.
  2. Create three questions.
    • Questions should help you understand your user. For example, perhaps you determine the age range. Or if you are doing a gym website, it may be important to ask your participate how often they exercise or if they have a membership.
    • Make sure you use an appropriate question type, avoid Single line text or Multi-line text questions is possible.
    • Keep questions simple and easy.

Settings tab

Settings tab

  1. The Study link is what you will be turning into Blackboard.

Preview

Preview

  1. Preview your study.
    • Are all the cards self-explanatory? Or, do you need a tooltip description for clarity? Remember your participants won't know anything about the website.
    • ❗ DO NOT LAUNCH YOUR STUDY UNTIL I HAVE APPROVED YOUR CARDS

Submission

  1. Open the Week 4 folder in Blackboard
  2. Click on the Card Sort (Draft) submission link.
  3. Under Comments, paste the study link under Settings or Recruit (it's the same link in both places).
  4. Click Submit.

I will review your cards and pre-study questions and let your team know if you need to revise anything before launching.

Launch

  1. If your card sort study is approved you will receive a notification in your Slack channel.
  2. Once I have approved your cards and pre-study questionnaire, you may launch your study by clicking the Launch button (yellow button in the above screenshot). You cannot change your study after it has been launched.
    • For Project 1, your team must have 5 people participate in the study.
  3. Make sure to explain to your participants what to expect.
    • Give them a time frame (probably 5 - 8 minutes depending on the number of cards you have).
    • Give them a little background about your project and what a card study is.

Grading Criteria

Points Possible: 2

  • Cards At least 12 cards were created that represents the planned website content. Each card represents a concept or item that can be grouped.

  • Pre-study Questions Three pre-study questions were created. Each question aims to obtain relevant information about the user group.