This information architecture exercise can help determine the placement of content or functionality throughout a website or application. It is an outstanding way to organize information where the majority of users find it useful. By seeing how content is prepared graphically by your participants, you can see what content can be eliminated or needs to be created to fill a void.
The exercise involves shuffling a deck of cards with different content titles and asking a sample of users to organize them based on their capability needs. The purpose is to build a content inventory where users will be able to easily find the information they’re looking for. These findings can be incorporated into user scenarios and personas to group the applicable content by user type. The key deliverable is a sitemap that represents your user base—although multiple sitemaps can be created to arrange content different based on role.
The key advantages include highly accurate and affordable research that can be accomplished by just about anyone. With very little tools and experience, this is an exercise that can be incorporated into almost any design lifecycle with very little impact on cost or schedule.
Some of the key drawbacks are that it requires an inventory of relevant users and can be time consuming if resources are not allocated correctly. A lot of the findings can be coincidental as well, so it’s important to pay close attention to the trends and not get buried in the details.