Card sorting · Open sort

Open Card Sorting: How to Run an Open Card Sort

By UXbeam · Information architecture tools since 2021 · Published September 21, 2026

In an open sort, participants get the cards and nothing else. Preparation shapes the result: define the scope, write the cards and pilot the study before recruiting: the scope, the cards, the wording, and the pilot. This page is that procedure, ending in a handoff to analysis. The guide covers what an open sort is and how it compares with closed and hybrid.

When to use an open sort

Run one when the sections are undecided, when you want the organizing principle people reach for rather than the one you assumed, or when you need vocabulary: the names people give to groups of your content. If the sections are fixed and the question is placement, run a closed sort. If most of the structure is settled and you suspect a gap, run a hybrid sort. If the question is which of two organizing principles your audience applies, read the organizing principles guide before writing a card.

Define the scope

1. One question per study

   "How would customers organize the account and billing area" is a study. A whole-product question may need more than one study. The card set is the scope; split it when one deck combines unrelated questions or becomes too demanding.

2. Decide what a card is

   Use a consistent description of the items unless the distinction is part of the research question. A set that mixes Invoices (a thing) with Download an invoice (a task) invites two sorts at once.

3. Leave out what nobody navigates to

   Include items relevant to the navigation question, including legal pages or settings when they are in scope.

4. Record your expected grouping

   Write down your expected grouping before the study so you can compare it with what participants produce.

Prepare an unbiased card set

• One concept per card, at one level of grain. A card for Payments next to a card for Change card expiry date tells participants which is the parent.
• No category words in card names. Avoid adding the expected category to a card name.
• User language. Card wording can influence the names participants give their groups, so internal names leak into the result.
• No ordering cues. Randomize card order per participant. Alphabetical order groups Charging schedule with Charging status before anyone sorts.
• Near-duplicates only on purpose. Keep Start engine and Remote engine start both only if you want to know whether people group them together or distinguish them.
• Descriptions only where the pilot shows a card is unclear. A description after || steers a sort; every one you add is a decision you made for the participant.
• 15 to 60 cards. UXbeam's limits. Sample a large inventory or split the study rather than pushing the top of the range.

Ready-made sets, with recruiting messages, are on the templates page.

Neutral instructions

Inside the sort, UXbeam shows one line: Sort the items into as many categories as needed. The message that carries the link is yours. It should say what the cards are and how long it takes, and nothing about how many groups you expect, what your current sections are called, or what you hope to find. Do not use navigation, menu, validate or our new structure; each one tells participants what kind of answer you want.

Pilot

Pilot the sort with people you can question afterward. Check the cards, instructions and study setup before recruiting the main sample.

• Which cards did they ask about, or leave until last? Ask why before deciding whether to reword them or add a description.
• Which cards did everyone leave unsorted? Decide now whether to require all cards to be sorted. Requiring it gives complete data; allowing unsorted cards gives a count of what people left unsorted.
• Could you read their group names? If pilot labels are single letters or "misc", check whether the naming instruction was clear and ask what those labels mean.
• How long did it take? Use the pilot's completion times to estimate the duration in the recruiting message.

Handling unclear cards

Choose a response to the problem: reword the card, add a description, remove it, or keep it and treat its scatter as a finding. Make the change before launch. If you change a card after the main study starts, record the versions and keep their responses distinguishable.

Preserve participant labels

The category names participants write are direct evidence of the language they use for those groups. Do not rename or merge them during the study. UXbeam keeps every label as typed and consolidates casing and plural variants with a count, so Payments, payments and Payment read as one label used three ways. Read the labels before the groupings; a label you would never have chosen is the point of running an open sort.

Reviewing unusual sorts without erasing disagreement

UXbeam shows every individual sort. Read them before reading anything aggregate.

Excluding a participant changes every downstream view, including which mental models are detected. Exclude for quality, never for disagreement, and write the reason next to the exclusion.

Handoff to analysis

Then start with How to analyze card sorting results: what to inspect first, and what each view can settle.

A small annotated setup

The online-store set from the templates page, as it would be entered for an open sort.