Card Sorting: The UX Technique That Boosted Usage by 40%

Suppose you are going to revamp a restaurant's website. You have menu items, location details, social links, hours of operation, and online ordering features. Where does everything go? How will you organize it so that customers can quickly find what they need?

This is where card sorting becomes your secret weapon.

Card sorting is a user research technique that reveals how real people naturally organize information. Instead of guessing what works, you let users show you, and the results often surprise even seasoned designers.

What is Card Sorting?Think of card sorting as asking someone to organize a cluttered kitchen drawer: you hand them utensils, gadgets, and tools, and then observe how they naturally group things.

In UX design, card sorting works in precisely the same way: .

You give users cards with website features, menu items, or content topics written on them. They sort these cards into groups that make sense to them, then label each group. The patterns that emerge tell you exactly how to structure your navigation.

Why It Matters

A budgeting app had features scattered everywhere. Users couldn't find basic functions like "Track Expenses" or "Set Budget Goals."

The result? Feature usage increased by 40% anAfter card sorting sessions, the team discovered people naturally grouped features into: "My Money" (tracking of income, balance), "My Spending" (expenses, transactions), "My Goals" (budgets, savings), and "Reports" (analytics, insights). d support tickets dropped by 65%.

You provide predefined categories, and the users assign cards to existing groups. Real Example: A restaurant website had categories: "Menu," "Location," "About Us," "Contact," and "Order Online." Users were continually placing "phone number" in both "Contact" AND "Location"-indicating it needed to be in multiple places.

• Best for:
• Validating existing navigation
• Testing proposed categories
• Working within constraints

3. Hybrid Card Sorting (Best of Both)

You provide main categories, but let the users create new ones if needed. Real Example: In one budgeting application, there were "Tracking," "Planning," and "Reports," but users were allowed to add categories.

They added "Alerts & Notifications" with features they wanted to include, like "Bill reminders" and "Overspending warnings." This is something that the designers had not considered.

• Best for:
• Smoothing problem structures
• Testing enhancements to existing navigation
• How to Conduct Card Sorting: Step-by-Step