How to do a card sort online?

Find an online card sorting tool that will fit the needs of your research. Set up your study in the software of your choice - we recommend Card Sorting Tool by UXtweak, which offers a free plan. Then you will need to prepare your cards and/or categories and define the task you want users to complete. Keep in mind to make your task and instructions clear and concise and avoid leading users in any way. Recruit the needed amount of participants. Analyze the results and apply the gained insights to your designs and solutions.

How can I recruit participants for card sorting?

Here are 5 effective methods you can use to recruit participants for card sorting exercises. Use your existing network - reach out to a database of your current users and send them a link to participate in the study. Recruit from User Panels - order verified participants from User Panel. Intercept website visitors - using Onsite Recruiting you can turn visitors into respondents. Social media - share the link to your studies on social media profiles, groups, and communities. Paid advertising - run paid advertising leading targeted users into your research study. Learn more in our article on recruiting users for usability testing.

Can participants create new cards?

No, they can’t. Creating additional cards would change the content which you want your participants to sort and it would make this content participant specific, therefore it would be hard to draw any conclusions from the results because the results would come from different test environments. However, you can always ask your participants in the post-study questionnaire whether they found any card missing or not.

Can I combine data from multiple studies?

If you want to combine results from multiple studies, you can export them in .csv format and combine them externally.

How can I share the results of my Card Sorting?

You can set up a share link, which will provide access to your results to anyone you send it to regardless of whether they have an UXtweak account. This link can be password protected to ensure no unauthorized people see the details of your study. Alternatively, you can export the results as PDF or CSV files and share these files with your co-workers.

Which languages are supported?

Card Sorting is currently available in 14 languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hungarian, Slovak, Czech, Polish. Can’t see your language? Contact us and let us know.

Are there any free card sorting tools?

Yes, there are multiple free card sorting tools on the market. Keep in mind that the free plans will have limitations. We recommend you try Free Card Sorting Tool by UXtweak as it offers modern UI, advanced analytics, and insightful reports. Register for free now (no credit card needed), and start card sorting today.

Online Card
Sorting Tool

Design intuitive navigation menus or content structures where users will no longer be lost.

Find out what users think about your site’s content. Increase findability and discoverability of key information.

How it works

1. Define your cards & categories

Create your cards and discover how people think about grouping them into categories. Each card represents a content item (e.g. a menu label) from your site or app that can be grouped.

2. Recruit your respondents

Share your study link to your audience directly or using our Own Database mailing system. Find testers on your own site with our special Onsite Recruiting Widget. Time-consuming? Order testers from our User Panel.

3. Analyze

Get great insights from exploratory and statistical analysis. Standardize your categories and analyze data through Similarity matrix, Dendrogram and other visualisation tools. Learn how users perceive your content and create intuitive content grouping.

Easily run any card sort technique

Any card sort variant you need is available with the UXtweak card sorting tools. Easy setup, quick insights, advanced analysis, PDF and CSV exports. Fully customizable studies. Modern easy to use interface.

Open Card Sort

Take the first step in understanding the mental models of your future users by letting them create all categories they need to sort the cards you gave them.

Hybrid Card Sort

Validate the categories created in the Open Card Sort. Provide them to your users together with an option to create new categories if they want to.

Closed Card Sort

The last test of categories created in the previous variants by your users. In this variant, users are not able to create any additional categories.

Try Online Card Sorting now

Increase the discoverability of key information with our card sorting software.

Why choose Card Sort tool from UXtweak?

3 essential
variants

All research steps are covered by using these variants in the predetermined order
Open Card Sorting
Hybrid Card Sorting
Closed Card Sorting

Quick yet deep
analysis

Explore the concepts hidden in the results using the Standardization grid, Results Matrix and Popular placements matrix
Look for patterns with Dendrograms and Similarity matrix

Enterprise
features

UX expert support
Assessments (legal, security)
SSO (Single sign-on)
And more ways to enhance your plan...

Study
customization

Enter or import cards & categories
Illustrating cards with images - a good picture is worth a thousand words
Show cards and categories in a randomized order

Follow-up questions
with skip logic

Gather additional information from your participants
Guide the participant to relevant questions based on their answers
All Survey question types available

Screening of
respondents

Use a screening question to prevent respondents outside your target audience from participating
As many reject and accept options as you want

Information about
respondents

Complete respondent list
Every detail about your respondents (geographic, technical etc.)
Customizable filtering
Participant specific results

No installation
needed

You can set up your card sorting studies in any modern browser
Participants will also complete the study in their browser
Preview available at all times

Broad data
exports

Available CSV exports for further data analysis
Handy and presentable PDF reports and charts

Make your Card Sorting Moderated

Registration and
Timeslots

Intuitive calendar based timeslot organization
Choose when you are available, the length of a slot and more
Assign a team of experts from your team to each timeslot
Let participants register for vacant slots and reschedule

Calls with
Participants

The participants don’t need to install any additional software to participate in the calls
Time stamped notes from you and your note taking colleagues
Stream the call using the observer link to democratize your research

All Results in
One Place

No need to switch between several platforms
Survey analysis and call recordings in one place
Review the notes attached directly to call recording
Export the call recordings in a .mp4 format

More on Study Interviews with UXtweak HERE

How to get participants?

Own Database

Use the Own Database and its mailing system to recruit participant from your own pool. Simply import them using a .csv or .xlsx file and start inviting them right away.

User Panel

Pick what kind of respondent you're looking for (by country, age, gender and plenty of other attributes) and have them delivered directly by using the User Panel tool.

Onsite Recruiting

The best respondents are your customers. Insert the Recruiting Widget into your website to get data directly from your users.

Share a link

Take the registration link for your interview and share it through your own channels (e.g. though email, CRM or social media).

Start with Free Card Sorting Tool now

Improve information architecture to drive optimal experiences.

Learn more about Card Sorting

Read our complete guide to Card Sorting

Card Sorting Guide

Explore Card Sort/Tree Test Synergy

Watch video

Creating CS study
Interpreting results
Step-by-step guide

Explore all aspects of digital card sorting

In Depth Documentation

Try out demos

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Online Card
Sorting Tool