Summary: Labels in a card sorting study must be neutral to prevent keyword matching and encourage careful, conceptual groupings from users.
Card sorting is a specialty UX research method used to understand users’ mental models of the information architecture (IA) within your digital product. Users organize individually labeled notecards into groups according to criteria that make sense to them.
The phrasing on each card label can significantly influence how users group cards. Card labels should be neutral to prevent participant bias and encourage users to consider each card carefully.
Keyword Matching in Card Sorting
In card-sorting studies, participants sometimes tend to group cards with similar keywords rather than conceptually organize them carefully. This happens because it requires less cognitive effort to identify patterns through keywords than to think about the meaning of each card and how it’s conceptually related to other cards.