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The purpose of this paper is to describe the process, analysis, results, and implications of a card sorting usability study conducted during the planning stages of a web site redesign project at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The methodology was based on recommendations from usability literature. An open card sort was conducted with 14 students and one faculty member using 93 cards labeled with content from the library's web site. The subjects were asked to “think aloud” and explain their rationale for sorting the cards. The researchers used statistical analysis software to run a factor analysis on the results.

The researchers extracted 11 categories of cards that loaded together and 27 cards that did not fit a category. The categories showed evidence of clustering by shared words, format, and process or task. Cards that did not load were standalone categories, or were redundant or meaningless to the subjects.

The open card sort methodology and large number of cards resulted in cumbersome data that required specialized analysis. The qualitative data were critical to the interpretation of the quantitative data.

Libraries can use the process and analysis as a model for their own card sort usability studies. Results can be used to inform the naming of content and the creation of library web site architecture.

This study is unique in its use of the open card sort technique and factor analysis of the results. The results illustrate users' perceptions of library terminology and web site structure.

Qualitative researchers and information practitioners often investigate questions that probe the underlying mental models, nuanced perspectives, emotions and experiences of their target populations. The in-depth qualitative interview is a dominant method for such investigations and the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how incorporating hybrid card-sorting activities into interviews can enable deeper participant reflections and generate rich data sets to increase understanding.

Following a review of relevant literature, the case illustration presented is a grounded theory study into the student-researcher information experience with personal academic information management. This study uses hybrid card sorting within in-depth, semi-structured interviews, a unique adaptation that extends multi-disciplinary awareness of the benefits of card-sort exercises for qualitative research.

Emerging from diverse fields, ranging from computer science, engineering, psychology and human–computer interaction, card sorting seeks to illuminate how participants understand and organise concepts. The case illustration draws largely on methods used in interaction design and information architecture. Using either open or fixed designs, or hybrid variations, card-sort activities can make abstract concepts more tangible for participants, offering investigators a new approach to interview questions with the aid of this interactive, object-based technique.

Opening with a comprehensive review of card-sort studies, the authors present an information experience case illustration that demonstrates the rich data generated by hybrid card sorting within qualitative interviews, or interactive interviews. This is followed by discussion of the types of research questions that may benefit from this original method.

The purpose of this paper is to examine food preparation practices of US older adults by assessing their conceptualization of food preparation methods and their routine use of food preparation methods and kitchen equipment.

In total, 17 community-dwelling older adults used cards with names of food preparation methods and cooking equipment items to do one open sort and three closed sorts about: food preparation method classifications; food preparation method use frequency; kitchen equipment use frequency; and essential vs non-essential kitchen equipment. Descriptive statistics, cluster analysis, and qualitative thematic analysis were performed.

Participants classified food preparation methods using multiple dimensions: ways to alter food, inputs, location, timing, and personal behavior. They used a wide range of food preparation methods and kitchen equipment items in routine cooking. The mean number of the 38 preparation methods sorted as used “often” was 16.5±5.0. In total, 15 of the 17 participants reported using more than 20 of the 40 equipment items “often.” The mean number of equipment items identified as “essential” was 21.5±9.3.

Food professionals should consider access to equipment and food preparation skills and preferences when designing products and working with consumers. Addressing gaps in human and material capital may support adoption of food preparation practices.

Food preparation method and equipment use frequency has rarely been examined from the household cook’s perspective. Using card sorts is a novel approach to examining consumer classification of an extensive list of preparation methods and kitchen equipment.

This study aims to evaluate the usability and information architecture of the digital library (DL) website of the National Library and Archives of Iran (NLAI).

This applied study used an exploratory mixed method, card sorting. Data were collected by interviewing, observation, usability test and card sorting. By interviewing users about problems of the DL, eight tasks were predefined and users’ problems in the path were identified. Their satisfaction of the tasks and the usability rates were measured via a questionnaire. Card sorting was done to inform on the information organization of the website elements. The study population included all users of the DL of the NLAI in two groups: ten initiator users (public users) and ten expert users (librarians). SPSS was used for analysing the usability test quantitative data. MaxQda was applied for analysing interview-driven qualitative data. Qualitative content analysis, categorization (data organization and grouping) and determining main and secondary codes were applied as well. The sort optimal application was used for analysing card sorting data in the form of similarity matrix and dendrogram. For validating qualitative findings, triangulation was used. The internal reliability of the used questionnaire amounted to a = 0.87

Regarding the assigned tasks, new initiator users by consuming 367.67 s for registering and new expert users by consuming 403 s spent the most time. Task 2 ranked first in being incomplete among 40% of initiator users and Task 3 ranked first by 30% of incompleteness. Expert users had more unsuccessful attempts. Task 5 with the mean rate of 3.35 and Task 8 with the mean rate of 2.25 were the most difficult and the easiest tasks, respectively. Some usability components were rated lower than the moderate point. Only 30% of initiator users and 10% of expert users were satisfied with the website. A total of 12 categories and 452 codes were identified as main problems of the DL. The problems related to a vague perception of concepts and labels with 90 repetitions and digital source display with six repetitions ranked as the first and the last problems in working with the DL, respectively. The sort optimal package produced the card sorting results as a matrix similarity and a dendrogram. Card sorting reflected some changes in organizing information items. Interviews after card sorting emerged some new groups to be included, such as links to other digital libraries, shared databases in the organization and frequently asked questions.

The library’s website should be designed in a manner so that it can satisfy users with different traits. As the information technologies are increasingly developing, the importance of such a design increases for better service provision and effective competition.

This study aims to explore peoples cognitive perceptions of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) to inform decisions on message development with regard to message bundling, with limited research on the concept of bundling-related prevention messages and no studies that consider the bundling of HIV and other STD prevention messages.

Individual and small-group interviews were conducted with 158 African American men and women to explore perceptions of STDs and communication preferences. Open-ended questions and a pile-sort exercise were used to elicit individuals’ judgments on similarities of 12 STDs, including HIV. Interview data were coded and analyzed for themes and patterns; pile sort data were analyzed using multidimensional scaling (MDS) and cluster analysis to visualize the set of relations identified from the piles.

STDs and HIV are associated with stigma, risk behaviors and personal responsibility. The card sorting activity revealed two primary dimensions by which people organized STDs: seriousness and curability. Potential clusters of STDs that correspond to participants described sorting strategies were identified and they may have implications for message bundling. Disaggregation of the data by sex and age revealed slight variations in the relationships of HIV and human papillomavirus (HPV) to other STDs.

By identifying a set of cognitive attributes people use in organizing the overall semantic domain of STDs, ideas can be generated for how best to combine STD and HIV messages to meet public health communication goals.

Knowledge is a key driver for the competitive success of organizations, but about 90 percent of organizational knowledge is inside employees’ minds with personal essence; therefore, this paper provides valuable vision for managers by exploring knowledge acquisition (KA) techniques and personality type. The purpose of this paper is to examine KA techniques and explore the impact of personality type on the KA process in the aerospace industry.

This paper examines KA techniques through an empirical study involving 83 participants to take part in KA sessions. For exploring techniques, a questionnaire was used, and also the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator was used to identify participants’ personality type. The impact of personality type on KA processes was determined by correlation analysis.

Analyses confirmed some association between the type of personality and KA process. In addition, the findings of exploring questionnaire items showed that participants gave the laddering technique the highest rating.

The paper may be of high value to researchers in the field of KA, especially in aerospace industries, because there is very little experimental investigation of KA, and it also provides valuable information and guidelines that hopefully will help researchers to select appropriate KA techniques.

The complexity and the wide range of electronic data processing machines on the market is bewildering; at the one end are the relatively simple machines such as invoicing calculators, at the other the complex and powerful computer systems. For many organisations neither of these is the answer. Visible Record Computers however, occuping an intermediate position, are flexible, fully supported with software and systems, and relatively inexpensive. How VRCs function and how they may be applied to the distributive trades form the subject of this feature.

Library-related and resource access issues confronting students enrolled in an interinstitutional joint master’s degree program in public health are addressed in this chapter. It details a cross-institutional collaborative effort to identify and provide research resources to interinstitutional joint degree students and faculty and analyzes the program through the lens of literature on collaboration in higher education and in library instruction. Reports on findings from qualitative feedback and quantitative card sort analysis data were gathered to inform development of content for, and organization of, a library research guide. Bureaucratic structures and policies often affect library services to students and faculty in interinstitutional joint degree programs. Therefore, more salient information about library policies, services, and resources was needed in order for the affected libraries to coordinate instruction, collections, and services to best support such programs. One of the limitations of the case study was that limited qualitative and quantitative feedback was received. Also there was no prior formal needs assessment. Nevertheless, the chapter provides insight to challenges facing libraries and librarians supporting interinstitutional joint degree programs. It also points to administrative opportunities to create rich library collaborations. Existing literature does not adequately address obstacles of in-person interinstitutional joint degree programs. The contribution of this chapter is that it identifies the complications of access, library policies, and administrative procedure that will need to be address by two or more libraries that want to support joint degree programs at the college or university level.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a user‐centered approach to developing a metadata model for an inter‐institutional project to describe and digitize sheet music collections.

Query logs analysis, card sort, and task scenario studies were used to explore users' needs for the discovery of sheet music. Findings from these studies were used to design an interoperable metadata model for sheet music meeting the needs of libraries, archives, and museums.

The user studies conducted demonstrated to the project team the need and methods for recording titles, names, dates, subjects, and cover art for sheet music described as part of the IN Harmony project. It was also learned that tying user studies directly to the design of metadata models can be an effective approach for digital library projects.

The metadata model developed by the IN Harmony project will be reusable for other sheet music collections at a wide variety of institutions. The user‐centered methodologies used to develop the metadata model will similarly be reusable for other digital library projects in the future.

The approach described in this paper brings together standard user study methodologies with metadata design in a novel way, and demonstrates the effectiveness of a methodology that can be reused to plan metadata creation in future digital projects.

Organization development (OD) and people analytics (PA) have developed and are typically practiced as entirely separate and nonoverlapping disciplines in organizations. We review the principles underlying each of the two disciplines and show much greater overlap and similarities than commonly believed. An integrated framework is provided, along with examples of OD tools that should be part of the PA toolkit for any practitioner. Case studies of what the integrated framework looks like when applied in practice are discussed.