“It’s not difficult to end up with a badly organized website, despite one’s best intentions. One of the most common reasons is that the Information Architecture (IA) is created from the business structure of the organization, rather than from users’ needs.” (Source: Smashing Magazine)

The organization of the content on your website and how it connects together – known as the Information Architecture (IA) – is an important part of a usable website. If the IA of a site is done well, users’ will rarely have problems finding what they need. How do you structure your site’s content in a way users will understand? One popular way is through a technique called card sorting.

Card Sorting is a tried and true technique for improving the IA of a site because it actually involves the users in the process, allowing them to communicate their organizational expectations and preferences.

We have conducted numerous card sorting exercises for clients across multiple industries to help inform structural redesign of their website content, navigation paths, menu structures, work flows, and product lists. Here are some of the most important things we’ve learned from our studies:

Keep It Simple
Users want logical and simple categories. For websites with extensive navigation menu items or product lists, utilize a multi-level categorization to avoid user confusion and frustration. Multi-level organization of content promotes an easier and quicker access to your content. This can be achieved by using larger and meaningful main categories and smaller and logical subcategories. Too many choices at the top-level can cause cognitive overload, while not enough can bury much needed information.

Card Sorting Resolves Internal Conflicts
If members of your team can’t seem to agree on the Information Architecture of your site, let card sorting come to the rescue. One of our clients had two teams who couldn’t agree on restructuring their website content. The card sorting exercises we ran helped resolve this conflict in the best way possible – the users told them exactly what they wanted.

Avoid Internal Language
Avoid using insider language or jargon that users don’t understand. A usable site should be easy for a user to learn and remember how to use, and if they don’t fully understand the language that’s being used, those goals will be more difficult to meet. The best way to find out whether you are using internal language for your labels, is to test them with actual users. Users are not shy in expressing “I have no idea what that means.” That’s when you know you are using internal language that’s not clear to your users. You can test unclear labels by including them in a follow-up survey study.

If your website is performing poorly, there may be any number of reasons for this, but poor Information Architecture might certainly be a main culprit because bad IA means users can’t find the content they’re after. Online card sorting is a preferred tool for helping to improve IA because it is reliable, inexpensive, easy to execute, and involves a large number of your site’s target users.