Card sort study · open, closed and hybrid

How do people group these?

Card sorting shows how customers group a messy list of concepts and needs. Run a study, watch the themes emerge, and read the result even on a large deck.

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How it works

From a pile of cards to a clear set of themes.

1

Add your cards

Type your concepts, needs, features or benefits. Run an open sort, a closed sort against your own categories, or a hybrid of the two.

2

Participants sort

Each person groups the cards in a way that makes sense to them, and names their groups. On a phone they get a sort built for the small screen.

3

Read the analysis

See the themes on a similarity matrix, a dendrogram and a 3D cluster view. Pick the number of groups and Graham names them.

What your participants see

Built for the phone in their hand.

Most of your participants are on a phone, so the sort is designed for the phone from the first tap. They flip through the cards, file each into a group with a tap, and name the groups as they go. It is quick, needs no account, and that is why more people finish.

  • A mobile sort made for the phone screen, one card at a time
  • Open, closed and hybrid sorts, on phone or desktop
  • An optional screener to reach the right people
The mobile card sort screen on a phone
Sorting cards into folders, built for the phone.
What you see

Analysis that stays clear on big decks.

Where other tools stop at a tangle, SortedResearch keeps a 60 card study legible. A similarity matrix shows which cards were grouped together, a dendrogram shows the structure, and a 3D view lets you explore it. Pick the number of groups and the cards reorganize.

  • Similarity matrix, dendrogram and 3D clusters
  • Suggested groups at the number you choose, named by Graham
  • Quality checks and segments, so you can trust and slice the data
A similarity matrix of 64 sportswear-need cards, with darker clusters along the diagonal showing which cards were grouped together
A similarity matrix: cards grouped together sit in the dark blocks.
Graham

Graham names the groups

Pick the number of groups and Graham reads what participants created, then names and describes each one, so a long deck becomes a clean set of themes you can act on.

  • A clear name and a one-line description for every group
  • A client-ready report, with the story and clear next steps
  • Import a screener from a Word or PDF document in seconds
Better together

Sorted your themes? Now put a number on them.

A card sort is qualitative: it gives you the themes in customers' own words. One click turns those themes into a pairwise study, a Best–Worst study or a Findability study, and now they are quantitative. Graham carries the group names and descriptions across, so nothing is retyped and nothing is lost in the handover.

Better together

A card sort tells you how to group it. Findability tells you if they can find it.

Grouping and finding are not the same test. People can agree on where something belongs and still walk past it in a live menu, because the label that made sense on a card has to compete with everything around it. Build a Findability study straight from a finished card sort, give people the structure as words alone, and watch where they actually go looking.

Questions

Card sorting, answered.

What is card sorting?

Card sorting asks people to group a list of items into piles that make sense to them, and then name those piles. It shows you the structure customers already carry in their heads rather than the one your team assumed. In consumer research it is used on concepts, needs, benefits and features, not just website menus.

What is the difference between open, closed and hybrid card sorting?

In an open sort, participants create and name their own groups, which is how you discover a structure. In a closed sort you supply the categories and they file the cards into them, which is how you validate a structure you already have. A hybrid sort gives them your categories and lets them add their own. SortedResearch runs all three.

How many participants do I need for a card sort?

About 15 participants gives a result that correlates around 0.90 with what a much larger group would tell you, according to Nielsen Norman Group guidance. At 20 to 30 that rises to roughly 0.93 to 0.98 and then flattens out (Tullis and Wood, 2004). So 15 is a defensible floor for a directional read and 30 is the practical ceiling for most studies.

Can participants do a card sort on a phone?

Yes. The sorting flow is built for a phone screen first, which is where most panel respondents are. That is a large part of why completion rates hold up on long decks.

How big can a card deck be?

Decks of 60 cards stay readable for participants and stay legible in the analysis. The similarity matrix, the dendrogram and the 3D cluster view are all built to hold their shape at that size, which is where many tools start to blur.

What happens after the sort?

You get a similarity matrix, a dendrogram and 3D clusters, and Graham suggests names for the groups people created. From there one click carries those groups into a pairwise, Best-Worst or Findability study, so you go straight from structure to priority without retyping anything.

Run your first sort, free

Set up a card sort today. Graham will help you get going.

Start your free study