Design for Usability - Card Sorting for User Experience

Overview

We can provide several courses on card sorting, either half-day or full. They cover not only the theories behind sorting and cluster analysis but also both the qualitative and quantitave applications of sorting and hands-on activities. The course described below is a full-day course but please get in touch if you would like to discuss other options.

This one-day, hands-on course covers both paper and online sorting methods, looking both at how to prepare successful card sorting activities and how to make sense of the results. Analysis covers a wide range of techniques from simple spreadsheets and our own free analysis software through to the latest developments in cluster and participant analysis - allowing researchers to extract meaning from all but the most confused sets of results.

This is a new course based in part on our card-sorting workshops presented at a number of CHI and BCS HCI Group conferences as well as Nielsen Norman Group Usability Week.

Duration

Full day (9:30 pm to 5:00 pm), including breakfast and lunch (breakfast from 8:30)

Benefits

You will learn how to design effective navigation, menus and information hierarchies for web sites, intranets and other interactive technologies with a focus on meeting real users' needs.

Features

Computer-aided paper sorting
Web-based sorting
Participant analysis
Item analysis
Cluster analysis
Dendrograms
Item x group analysis
Pairs maps
Navigational alignment (how to compare results)
Advanced participant analysis with SynCaps V3

Audience

This course is suitable for anyone involved in designing or evaluating interactive solutions. While most of the examples focus on web or intranet technology, much of the course applies human-computer interaction in general.

Participants' comments

Evaluation comments from participants – about the course (from the original half-day version):

A good introduction to card sorting techniques
Workshop at right pace
I can really see myself applying this

And about the instructor:

Clear, approachable, well-paced presentation
Very competent - clear explanation of the concepts
Subject knowledge very good
Very professional

Instructor

William Hudson is a User Experience Strategist who consults, writes and teaches in the fields of user-centred design, user experience and usability. He has over 40 years experience in the development of interactive systems, initially with a background in software engineering. William was the product and user interface designer for the Emmy-award-winning "boujou"; now an indispensable tool in major film studios. He has specialized in interaction design and human-computer interaction since the late 1980's. William has written and taught courses that have been presented to hundreds of software and web developers, designers and managers in the UK, North America and Europe. He is the founder and principal consultant of Syntagm, a consultancy specializing in the design of interactive systems established in 1985.

William has presented papers, talks and tutorials at a number of international conferences including CHI, UPA and Nielsen Norman Group Usability Week.

William has worked with a wide variety of clients, from startups to established multi-nationals (click here to see our client list). He is was the courses co-chair for CHI 2013 and is the creator of persona stories.

Card Sorting Courses