Card Sorting

Also known as: Card Sort, Mental Models Research, Open Card Sorting

Research technique where participants organize cards with concepts or categories to understand their mental models.

Card Sorting is a research technique where participants organize cards—physical or digital—representing concepts, categories, products, or attributes according to their own logic and natural grouping. It reveals how consumers mentally organize information and categories.

Two modalities: Open Card Sorting (the participant creates their own categories) and Closed Card Sorting (the participant assigns cards to predefined categories). The former is more exploratory; the latter more confirmatory.

Originally a UX (User Experience) research technique for designing information architectures and navigation menus. In market research, it is used to: understand the consumer decision tree, map how they perceive differences between brands or products, and design category assortments.

With digital tools like Optimal Workshop or Maze, card sorting can be conducted remotely with larger samples.