What are the advantages and disadvantages of open vs closed card sorting?

When doing open card sorting remotely, I've often encountered the issue of users not understanding the task at hand. Highly suggest that researchers walk users through it (to the extent that they have the time)--while being careful of introducing bias. Not every tool comes with clear instructions and/or a tutorial.

Open card sorting allows users to freely group information based on their mental models, fostering insights into how users categorize content. It offers diverse perspectives, uncovering unexpected relationships and facilitating user-centered information architectures. However, it lacks predefined categories, making analysis more complex and subjective. The process demands significant user input and time, potentially leading to biased results due to individual interpretations. Open card sorting excels in uncovering novel categorizations but requires careful analysis to derive meaningful insights amidst diverse user interpretations.

Open card sorting is like a brainstorming session with your users. They organize your content without boxes, which can yield surprising insights and innovative categories. The tradeoff? It's like herding cats - more chaotic and harder to analyze, but sometimes the best ideas come from a little bit of chaos.

Open Card Sorting: Open card sorting is the simplest and most direct method. We say direct because the user actually does all the work for you, without even realizing it. The user simply takes a stack of cards with information written on them and sorts them into groups they think make sense. Then they add names to these groups and divide them into categories.

Advantages: Open card sorting allows participants to create their categories, providing insights into how users naturally organize information. It helps reveal the user's mental model and generates new, unexpected categories that can lead to innovative design solutions. Disadvantages: This method can result in a wide variety of categories, leading to inconsistencies and challenges in analysis. Interpreting and consolidating the results into a cohesive structure may require more effort, making it time-consuming.

Closed card sorting is the strict parent in the UX family, offering structure where it's needed. It dishes out categories upfront, helping teams validate if their content plays nice together. But beware, it can stifle creativity—users must color within predefined lines, which may leave out fresh, insightful hues from the usability palette.

Closed card sorting is ultimately about whether a pre-determined information architecture is intuitive to users. It will not help researchers discover any new forms of organization.

Closed Card Sorting: They are required to sort the cards into certain categories that fit a certain category structure. This can be useful to understand how they think about a particular information architecture. For best results from the closed card test, we recommend using it in conjunction with an open card sort. That is, allowing users to define category names in the first phase of testing, and then testing to verify that these categories actually work for all users.

Advantages: Closed card sorting offers predefined categories, making it easier to analyze and categorize results. It provides clarity on how well users understand existing organizational structures and is useful for validating or refining an existing information architecture. Disadvantages: Limiting participants to predefined categories can restrict their natural thinking process and overlook potential new ways of organizing information. This method may not reveal gaps or issues in the existing structure if categories don't fit users' expectations.

Mixed card sorting is like serving guests both meat and vegetarian lasagna—you cater to different tastes and get broader insights. It gives you the structure of closed sorting with the creative zest of open sorting. It's a winning combo for digging deeper into user expectations, albeit with more analysis on your plate.

Hybrid card sorting is a version where you provide your users with both tagged and untagged categories. Designers typically apply hybrid card sorting techniques when certain categories are defined but want user testing on how to label others. As an example, imagine that all the main categories of your website are already defined, but you still need to create subcategories. Hybrid card testing will allow your users to sort cards into what they believe to be the correct categories, then subdivide those categories into subgroups that they can name themselves.

Advantages: Mixed card sorting combines both open and closed methods, allowing participants to sort some items into predefined categories while creating new ones as needed. This approach offers flexibility, balancing user input with structured guidance, and provides richer insights. Disadvantages: It can be complex to design and analyze due to the combination of fixed and user-generated categories. Managing the balance between the openness of categories and structure may be challenging, potentially confusing participants.

Target Audience: Open Card Sorting: Valuable when accommodating user diversity and gaining a broad understanding. Closed Card Sorting: Useful for specific user groups with clear expectations. Mixed Card Sorting: Balances between diverse and focused user groups.

With over a decade of UX design experience, I choose card sorting methods based on project goals and timelines. Open card sorting helps understand user content groupings and is useful for reshaping information architecture (IA), as it did for our corporate intranet. However, it can be vague for complex sites like universities, where closed card sorting is preferable for validating specific categories. Closed sorting confirms IA decisions with real-user participants, as in a banking app redesign. Open sorting uncovers mental models, while closed sorting offers validation. Enough participants and clear research goals ensure effective sorting outcomes.

Choosing between open and closed card sorting is like deciding between freestyle and guided tour. Open sorting is the creative free-for-all, offering insights into how users naturally categorize and label. Closed sorting is the structured feedback loop, confirming if your content's roadmap makes sense to others. Your decision hinges on whether you're exploring new territories or validating a well-trodden path.

Research Goals: Open Card Sorting: Ideal for projects that start from scratch and aim to explore user perspectives. Closed Card Sorting: Best suited for testing user satisfaction within a predefined content structure. Mixed Card Sorting: Recommended when both exploration and validation are desired.

Selecting the best card sorting method depends on your project goals. Use open card sorting when exploring user mental models and discovering new categories. Choose closed card sorting for validating or refining an existing structure. Mixed card sorting is ideal for getting the best of both worlds when you need structured feedback with room for user-driven insights.

Card sorting turns chaos into clarity, but choosing between open and closed is like picking pizza toppings—it depends on the diner's appetite for adventure. Open card sorting is the buffet: customers (users) dish out their own categories, ideal for fresh insight, but can leave you with a complex recipe to decode. Closed card sorting is the set menu: easier to digest for both diners and chefs, but might miss out on that unexpected, delightful flavor combo.

To conduct a card sorting exercise, first define your objectives and select the appropriate method (open, closed, or mixed). Prepare a list of items or concepts for sorting. Recruit participants who represent your target audience. Provide clear instructions, facilitate the sorting process, and record the results. Analyze the data to identify patterns and insights that can inform your design.

Consider using digital tools for ease of analysis and scalability. Ensure participants understand the purpose of the exercise to avoid confusion. Consider conducting multiple sessions with different user groups to get diverse perspectives. Lastly, remember that card sorting is just one tool in the user research toolkit; complement it with other methods for a comprehensive understanding.