Class assignments

Card sorting assignment: group a university website's navigation

Students sort a real site's pages into groups and compare with its menu. 60 minutes, free, printable.

Use it in a class

At a glance

  • Time60 minutes
  • Work inPairs or groups of three
  • ToolCard sort
  • Hand in2 items
For the teacher

Before class.

  • Choose a large public site, such as your own university's. Print or list its top-level menu so groups can compare later.
  • Tell groups to cover the whole site, not one department.

Tools used: Card sort, Tree test. Create a class, pick this assignment and students get the brief when they join, with a link to start.

Student brief

What students get.

Card sort a website navigation

60 minutes · Pairs or groups of three · Tool: Card sort

Goal

See how real people group content, and where their groups differ from the structure a site actually uses.

Steps

  1. Open the card sort tool. Write 20 to 30 cards, each one a page or service from the site, in plain words.
  2. Choose an open sort, where people name their own groups. Add one question: what would you call this group?
  3. Share the participant link with another group or with friends outside the class. Aim for at least 10 people.
  4. Close the study, then read the results: the agreement between people and the group names they chose.
  5. Compare the most common groups with the site's real menu. Mark where they match and where they don't.
  6. Propose a revised top-level menu with no more than seven items, and say which results support each item.

What to hand in

  • A link to the results (read-only) or a PNG of them.
  • A one-page note: the groups people made, three cards people disagreed about, and the proposed menu.

Questions to discuss

  1. Which cards did nobody agree on, and what does that say about how the site names things?
  2. What did you learn from the group names that a menu label would never tell you?
  3. How many participants would you want before you changed a real navigation?
  4. A card sort shows how people group things. What can't it show?

myuxacademy.com/tools/for-teachers/assignments/ · free class assignments

Questions

Frequently asked questions

How long does this take?

60 minutes in class, plus a few days for responses. It works best pairs or groups of three.

What do students hand in?

A link to the results (read-only) or a PNG of them. A one-page note: the groups people made, three cards people disagreed about, and the proposed menu.

Do students need an account?

Not to take part in a study. To build one and share it, the card sort tool asks for a free email log-in. If you set up a class, students log in to join it so you can see their studies.

More assignments: Tree test a council website, Five-second test of two landing pages, Preference test of two app screens. See all six.