Card sorting: current practices and beyond

Card sorting was originally developed by psychologists as a method to the study of how people organize and categorize their knowledge. As the name implies, the method originally consisted of researchers writing labels representing concepts (either abstract or concrete) on cards, and then asking participants to sort (categorize) the cards into piles that were similar in some way. After sorting the cards into piles, the participants were then asked to give the piles a name or phrase that would indicate what the concepts in a particular pile had in common.