Card sorting is a technique that many information architects (and related professionals.) use as an input to the structure of a site or product. With so many of us using the technique, why would we need to write an article on it?

While card sorting is described in a few texts and a number of sites, most descriptions are brief. There is not a definitive article that describes the technique and its variants and explains the issues to watch out for. Given the number of questions posted to discussion groups, and discussions we have had at conferences, we thought it was time to get all of the issues in one place.

This article provides a detailed description of the basic technique, with some focus on using the technique for more complex sites. This article does not cover some issues such as the use of online tools, which will be covered in a future article.

Read more…….

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/card_sorting_a_definitive_guide

Chris Poteet shares some great tips on the EndUserSharePoint.com site:

*Expose the global navigation from the parent site(s) in your subsites. It will help to orient users in the application.

*When naming lists and libraries, use descriptive names that make sense to your audience. For instance, “Documents” isn’t a great name for a document library, because you have many document types.

*Develop a consistent naming convention for lists and libraries that can be enforced throughout the enterprise.

*Use columns to manage document information, not file names. End Users have a tendency to insert metadata into the name of the document.

*Instead of a name such as “2008-08-01-MeetingMinutes-ProductionTeam.docx”, create three columns that will hold the important information about the document: Date, Type of Document, Team.

*When using document workflow, insert a “Status” column .

*Use columns to query, organize, and present information.

*Leverage the Quick Launch bar. It is local navigation that you can control. Fill it with descriptive link titles and headings to aid navigation around your site..

*When creating/requesting a new site, make it a Publishing site (MOSS, only). A
Publishing Site allows the creation of many, individual web pages. These can be used to give a “dashboard-like” view into your content.

*Ask potential users try to navigate through your site and give you feedback on what you can change to make it easier.