Stop 03 · UX ResearchTopics · 8/11

Card Sorting & Tree Testing

In short

Your menu labels make perfect sense to you. Users may look for 'Refunds' under 'Help' while you put it in 'Orders'. These two quick methods tell you how people actually group and find things.

Card sorting asks users to group content into categories that make sense to them (informing structure); tree testing checks whether an existing structure lets users find things — complementary methods for information architecture decisions.

The jaadu arranges colourful product boxes onto neat shelves in a small grocery shop.

Think of it like this

Arranging a kirana store

Before arranging shelves, you ask regular customers to group items as they'd expect. That's card sorting. After arranging, you ask 'where would you find toothpaste?' and see if they head to the right shelf. That's tree testing.

Watch it happen

Tree test: 'Where would you find toothpaste?'

Home

Food & Snacks

Personal Care

Household

Oral Care

Skin Care

Cleaning

Toothpaste

1/4The participant sees only the text menu, no visuals. They pick where they'd click first.

The big ideas

What you need to know

Card sorting builds

People group topic cards into piles and often name them. You learn the categories they expect.

Tree testing checks

People find items in a text-only menu. You learn whether your structure actually works.

Open vs closed sorts

Open: participants name their own groups. Closed: they sort into groups you've already defined.

Save yourself the pain

Common mistakes

Oops

Copying card sort results directly as your final menu.

Do this instead

Use them as input. Combine with business needs, then check the result with a tree test.

Oops

Testing your menu with icons and visuals included.

Do this instead

Tree tests use text only, so you test the labels and structure, not the visuals.

Your mission

Run a paper card sort

~35 min

Quick check

You already have a menu structure and want to check if people can find things. Which method fits?

Go deeper

1Run an open card sort with 3-5 people on a set of content or features from a real product.
2Learn the difference between open card sorting (users create categories) and closed (categories given).
3Practice a tree test on an existing app's navigation to see where users get lost.