Universal Principles of UX

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Uncover consensus and ambiguity.

A card sort is a research method that allows us to uncover people’s existing mental models to help design or evaluate the information architecture of a site. Card sorting involves creating a set of cards in which each card represents a concept or item and asking people to group the cards in a way that makes sense to them.

But before we get started with a card sort, we need to have a plan. How many people will participate? Will we be doing one-on-one sessions or group sessions? Where will we be doing it? What are we trying to learn?

Since the Met Museum was undergoing a complete overhaul of its entire existing information architecture, the goal was to understand how people categorize anything that is happening ...