Card Sort
A card sort asks people to group your content in a way that makes sense to them, so you can see how they expect it to be organised.
Set up your test
Study title
Cards12
Tip: press Enter to add the next card. Drag the handle to reorder, or press Alt+Up or Alt+Down in a card. Blank cards are ignored. to add many at once.
Sort type
Options
Participant journey
Optional. Empty boxes use the wording shown.
Shown first, on the start screen.
Shown under the welcome message, before the first step.
Questions before the study
Up to 3. Asked before the task. Don't ask for names or emails unless you need them; participants are told what's collected.
Questions after the study
Up to 3. Asked after the task.
Shown when the participant has finished.
Optional. Starts with https://. Sent after 5 seconds.
People enter it before seeing the study.
Stored as a hash. Change it later in Share.
Already have a study?
Paste your study key and results (owner) key to view your results.
A sort gives you a hypothesis, not a spec.
Card sort results show you patterns of agreement, not a finished navigation. Where agreement is strong, trust it. Where it's split, that's real information too. It usually means a card genuinely belongs in more than one place, which is worth designing for rather than forcing a single answer. No participant panel is included (you supply the testers), and a small sample should be read as indicative, not conclusive.
Frequently asked questions
What's card sorting?
Card sorting shows participants a set of content items, one per "card", and asks them to group the ones that belong together. It's how you discover a navigation structure that matches how real people think, rather than one designed around your own team's internal logic, before you build anything.
Open sort or closed sort: which do I need?
Open sort: participants create their own groups and name them, which is best when you don't have a structure yet and want to discover one from scratch. Closed sort: you provide the categories and participants place cards into them, which is best for checking whether an EXISTING or proposed structure makes sense before you commit to it.
How many cards should I use?
Somewhere around 30-60 cards is typical for a full information architecture exercise; this tool caps you at 60. More than that and participants tend to fatigue and sort carelessly toward the end, which quietly corrupts your results without looking like a problem.
What do the results actually show?
Which pairs of cards were grouped together most often, as a percentage of everyone who took the study. The closer to 100%, the stronger the agreement that those two belong side by side. For an open sort you also see the group NAMES participants chose most, which is often the more useful finding: it tells you the language your actual users reach for, not the language your team uses internally.
Comparing card sorting tools? See the free OptimalSort alternative.