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We have a lot of information on our product's detail page.
I want to conduct user testing to learn from the users how they would prioritize and rank the information. I am considering using an unmoderated user testing platform.
My question is: would a card sorting test on the unmoderated platform cover what I'm trying to do, or would there be a better method for testing this?
A card sorting test on an unmoderated platform is a good first step for what you are trying to do. You should have your users think out loud as much as possible when doing the sorting, so that you can start to hear patterns in the feedback on why certain information is more important than others.
If your testing platform doesn't support card sorting, you can still do a similar exercise in your design tool of choice. You can design the cards, and let the user into the file to move them around and rank them. Use your testing platform to capture their think-aloud feedback while they are sharing their screen and working on it.
I suggest you understand your user's needs and behaviour first before you go with a card sorting approach. You need to take a user survey or interview to understand what kind of information they are looking for when they purchase the product. Every user has different needs, so you must first understand the overall picture before categorising which information they are looking for if they want to complete that need, and later on you will allow them to categorise their needs with a card sorting approach.
Imagine a group of people who want to purchase a phone online and there are people from different regions, different ages, and different budgets. Many of these people are looking for the best phone within their budget, the best phone in terms of performance, the best phone for gaming, the best camera phone, and so on. Everyone is looking for specific and different information compared to others. At this time, it's important for us to do a quick check to see if we have that information that they are looking for, and if not, then we need to think about this first.
Card sorting can help to explore how participants group items into categories and is a good choice to generate options for structuring info, organizing menus, and navigation. I would suggest including blank cards and categories so participants can add their own items as needed.
If you are unsure, run the card sort with some friends or colleagues first to see if the information you would be getting is useful to you.
If after a few tests you aren't seeing any consistent patterns then consider renaming the cards, categories, or try a different method.
Hope this helps!
You have asked an interesting question. I think using card sort is good but I would use it in the second case.
In the beginning, I would formulate the purpose of this testing. For example: Determine the most important information for the user on the page, determine the main user paths, etc.
Further would select suitable users. They can be many or one. I would prepare a questionnaire and conduct an interview with him.
Once I identified their needs, I would understand the user flow that they go through every day and then focus on testing. Create scenarios, set up testing space, preparing materials and technics. At this stage, you can choose testing tools that are suitable for your requests (card sorting, heat mapping and etc.)
