This presentation covers validation techniques for testing taxonomy and metadata with users. Four approaches are covered: Delphi card sorting, online card sorting, usability testing, and search term analysis. The presentation also contains a list of online card sorting tools.

1. Taxonomy Validation
Dave Cooksey
Principal Consultant
IA Summit 2009 - Memphis
March 20, 2009

2. Today’s Presentation
! About Dave
! Testing and Taxonomy | Metadata
! Taxonomy Validation Techniques:
! Delphi Card Sorting
! Remote Card Sorting
! Usability Testing
! Search Analysis
! Discussion
! Resources

3. Dave Cooksey
Founder & Principal Consultant
saturdave UX Consulting
Affiliations
! Chair of PhillyCHI, the Philadelphia region’s chapter of the ACM SIGCHI
! Information Architecture Institute (IAI)
! American Society for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T)
Education
! M.S. Information Systems, Drexel University
! M.A. Political Science, University of Illinois
Previous Work Experience
! GSI Commerce, Inc.: User Experience Lead; Information Architect
! LandAmerica Financial Group: (Web) Application Developer

4. Testing and Taxonomy | Metadata

5. Taxonomy
! Is an expert activity
! Comes from a privileged view
! Is more closely aligned to business & technology goals than user goals
Taxonomies & Metadata
! Hold implicit meanings through
! Hierarchy & relationships
! Labeling conventions used
! Are interpreted from the user’s experience, context, & goals
But the experience, context, & goals of the users are
rarely our own!

6. Taxonomy Validation Is
Needed
! Ensures that information is
organized for the user
! Justifies the cost of taxonomy
research & analysis
! Reassures the business that
project focus is on success
! Helps alleviate organizational You’ve been warned: Princeton Record Exchange.
conflict
! Vets untried ideas with real users

7. Taxonomy Validation Techniques

8. Taxonomy Validation Techniques
! Delphi Card Sorting
! Direct user testing method
! Test proposed design with real users
! Remote Card Sorting
! Direct user testing method
! Examine specific categories | items
! Usability Testing
! Direct user testing method
! Focus on interactions
! Search Analysis
! Indirect testing method
! Adjust taxonomy | metadata terms to match user vocabulary

9. Delphi Card Sorting
Qualitative | Small Sample
Based on the Delphi Method (RAND Corporation)
Developed by Professor Kathryn Summers and Celeste Lyn Paul at
University of Baltimore
Hierarchy is laid out in cards - seeded or not
Test for both categories and individual items
Participants modify the structure one at a time
Runs for 15 - 20 participants until hierarchy “stabilizes”
Watch and learn - Interview for detail
Can also present navigation schema, images for labeling, filters | facets

10. Step-by-Step Delphi Card Sorting
1. Decide to seed deck or let first user create seed
2. Think of other pertinent test points: navigation, facets, images for labeling
3. Put categories on cards (You or first participant)
4. Put representative items on cards | script (You)
5. Interview participant
a. Explain exercise
b. Participant organizes and comments
c. Watch and interview
6. Repeat with participants until you are satisfied
7. Analyze data

11. Performing Delphi Card Sorting
1. User starts with deck from previous participant
2. Participant modifies card deck
a. Removing category - turning the card over
b. Changing labels - creating new card & place over old one
c. Moving category - turn card over & create new card in new place
3. Participant examines changes made to card deck
a. Looks at existing cards & placement
b. Turns cards over to see previous changes to labels & placement
4. Moderator interviews informally during session

14. Different than Traditional Card Sorting
Targets to group understanding, not to individual understandings
Participants pick up where previous participant left off
Assumes some level of “expertise”
The end result is the “final” hierarchy
Changes path reduces analysis time
Informs the “black box” (Thanks, Michael)

15. The Question of Expertise
Delphi Method designed for use with groups of experts
Each expert contributes her knowledge to building a consensus view
Outliers are removed through iteration
Consider...
What kind of users are you testing?
Do they have domain expertise?
Do you have multiple user types?
Do you have a general population (public website)?

16. Tips for Delphi Card Sorting
Plan for lots of table space for cards
Allow for plenty of time between participants
Create a “starter” sheet to capture notes
Take pictures of table after each participant
Detail is great, but keep your eye on patterns
Video recording is essential
Use questions to explore what the user is doing
Employ multiple methods to solicit feedback

17. Remote Card Sorting
Quantitative | Large Sample
! Online tools allow testing hierarchy | labels
! Either open or closed
! Closed - place items in hierarchy - tests structure
! Open - create categories for items - gathers many perspectives
! Recruit via intercept or email
! Easily run for large sample sizes
! Captures national sample
! Good for identifying patterns
! Use with in-person card sorting for balance

18. Step-by-Step Remote Card Sorting
1. Decide on open or closed card sort
2. Decide population target (online, email, other)
3. Determine sample size needed
4. Choose software package
5. Focus each sort to 15 - 20 items
6. Put items | categories on cards
6. Run study
7. Analyze the data

26. Tips for Remote Card Sorting
! Run a few qualitative interviews to vet if possible
! Scale the test appropriately - run multiples if needed
! Pick important categories | items to test
! Significant to the business but hard to classify
! Stereotypical cases that justify taxonomy guidelines
! Give yourself time to dig into the raw data
! Read the juicy, juicy comments!
! Deliverables depend on software used
! Your satisfaction depends on software used

27. Usability Testing
Qualitative | Small Sample | Task-based
! Piggyback on system testing
! From paper prototyping to existing systems
! Great for testing navigation step-by-step (as opposed to birds eye view)
! Helps test other important aspects of taxonomy: facets, tagging, non-
hierarchical relationships
! Great for examining the contextual interaction of multiple taxonomy |
metadata points
! Demonstrates explicitly the value of taxonomy
! Good for reassuring the business
! Way easy

28. Tips for Usability Testing
! If someone else is testing, simply explain your goals & offer tasks
! Keep your tasks simple
! Pick tasks for the business (most significant) & for you (test the taxonomy)
! Give multiple tasks so moderator can pick for the situation
! Watch the live sessions and ask follow ups
! Take the opportunity to show to other stakeholders how the data is driving
the experience
! Offer to create an overview for the study organizer

29. Search Analysis
Quantitative | Interpretive | Focused on Patterns
! Uses existing reporting
! In your hands becomes a barometer of user satisfaction, requests, &
complaints
! Easily shows you
! What folks want from the system (search results)
! What folks need and are not getting (no search results)
! The vocabulary folks use to describe things
! Great for pointing out opportunities for business & technology
! Easy but time consuming

30. Step-by-Step Search Analysis
1. Find the owner of analytics and ask for advice
2. Determine what’s available to you: search results, no search results, etc.
3. Use spreadsheet to filter and order results in order to highlight patterns
4. Identify: like terms & misspellings, adjectives, frequent terms both
returned & not
5. Create summary
6. Discuss summary with business to get contextual detail
7. Create recommendations brief

31. Tips for Search Analysis
! Know the data
! Know the system
! Keep your interpretations simple
! Plan extra time for analysis - it’s time consuming
! When delivering results, create 2 views: overview & detail
! Pass results to teams that can benefit: business, search, technology,
marketing
! Works best when used with other methods / techniques

32. Discussion

33. Resources

34. Validation Tools
Recruitment
Ethnio: http://ethnio.com
Sample Size Calculator
Creative Research Systems Calculator: http://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm
Online Card Sorting Tools
The Mind Canvas: http://themindcanvas.com
OptimalSort: http://optimalsort.com
Socratic CardSortsm: http://www.sotech.com/
WebCat (NIST): http://zing.ncsl.nist.gov/WebTools/WebCAT/overview.html
WebSort: http://websort.net/
STC’s Usability & User Experience List of Card Sorting Tools:
http://www.stcsig.org/usability/topics/cardsorting.html
Others?

35. For Your Reading Pleasure
The Delphi Method for Card Sorting
“A Modified Delphi Approach to a New Card Sorting Methodology” by
Celeste Lyn Paul: http://www.upassoc.org/upa_publications/jus/
2008november/paul1.html
“A Delphi Approach to Card Sorting” by Celeste Lyn Paul (PDF):
http://iasummit.org/proceedings/2007/files/Delphi_Card_Sorting.pdf

36. That’s All, Folks!
Dave Cooksey
saturdave UX Consulting
713 Pine Street 1R
Philadelphia, PA 19106
+1.215.219.8960
dave@saturdave.com
© 2009 saturdave