Card sorting: principles on a method to test and development of categorizations and vocabularies

Abstract

This article presents Card Sorting technique, a method to perform analysis and organization of controlled vocabularies, in order to explore the relationship between the users and information services development. The key to apply this method is the participation of end-users in the process, allowing us to understand how they group available information in a search process by identifying which terminology is more usual, which may be confuse and which terms are more difficult to categorize. This technique can be used in information architecture when defining web sites structures or creating taxonomies and thesaurus. It is an extremely simple and unexpensive method, allowing great flexibility and a perfect interaction between the librarian and his user. There are two basic methods for performing this technique: the open card sorting, when user really participates by suggesting the vocabulary; and the closed card sorting, where a logical hierarchical structure is defined by using pre-established terms.