View respondent-defined categories
First look at the categories reveals that categories with the keyword “Baby” were quite popular.
This section covers how to use the Categories analysis to:
- View which cards were sorted into each category
- Create standardized categories in open and hybrid Card Sorting
- Save Standardization presets
- Get a PDF Export of Categories analysis
View which cards were sorted into each category 
- The Categories analysis displays the list of all categories in your Card Sorting.
- Each category contains its name, the number of unique cards that were sorted into it, the agreement score (in the case of standardized categories, and the number of respondents who used this category).
- By default, the cards are ordered by the number of Unique cards inside them in descending order; however, the order can be changed by clicking the headers Unique Cards, Agreement, and Respondents.
- The table is sorted by the column with an arrow in its header. Arrow down means descending order; arrow up means ascending order.
- Press + Show cards to display a list of all cards that were sorted into the chosen category.
- The list of category cards contains the Card name, Freq. (how many times the card was sorted into this category), and Avg. pos. (the average position of the card within this category).
- As with the categories list, the order of cards can be changed by clicking Freq. or Avg. pos. in the table’s header.
- Click Fullscreen to display the category results in fullscreen mode.
- Use the search bar to search for categories and their cards by their name.
Cards in categories
The way respondents categorize the cards provides deeper insight into the concept they are trying to convey.
Create standardized categories in open and hybrid Card Sorting
Standardized categories allow you to merge two or more respondent-defined categories into one.
Step 1
Select the categories you want to standardize by checking their checkbox.
Step 2
Click the Standardize button above the categories list.
Step 3
In the Category standardization modal view, enter the standardized category name and check the Agreement value.
Step 4
Click Create.
Step 5
Voilà, there’s your standardized category in the category list.
To undo standardized categories, select them in the list and click the Unstandardize button next to the Standardize button.
The Agreement score expresses how the respondents who created the original categories agree with the contents of the standardized category.
The Agreement score is calculated as the average of the percentages of respondents who placed each unique card into the original categories. (e.g., when standardizing two categories from two different people, if these categories contain the same card but also one different card each, the Agreement score would be (100 + 50 + 50) / 3 = 66)
The Agreement score’s coloring shows the quality of the standardization:
- Great – 80% and higher – standardization with a great score is what you aim for, as it means the standardization is a good representation of the original categories.
- Good – 60% and higher – this standardization isn’t bad, but you should look into ways to improve. Two possible ways are to remove categories that decrease agreement or look for subsets of similar categories and split the standardization into several smaller ones.
- Bad – lower than 60% – there’s little similarity between the original categories; this standardization definitely shouldn’t be used as is.
Save Standardization presets
After you’ve created your standardized categories, you will want to save them for future use. Saving standardized categories is done through Standardization presets. To save your standardizations as a preset:
Step 1
Click the Save as button located above the category list
Step 2
Enter the name of your Standardization preset.
Step 3
Click Create.
Step 4
Your Standardization preset will appear in the Standardization preset dropdown list.
After you’ve created your first Standardization preset, the Save as button will change into a Save button. Press it to save any changes to the preset. To save your standardization as a different preset, rename the current Standardization preset or delete it, click the dropdown list on the right of the Save button, and choose the relevant action.
Know the categories you standardize
When standardizing categories simply by a similar name (“life”), we get a standardization with an agreement score of only 45.5%, meaning respondents would mostly disagree with this category.
Higher agreement for better standardization
After looking into the contents of categories, we standardize only those that have more cards in common. Our new standardization is indubitably better, with a score of 65%. This also means that it’s a better representation of the original concepts.
Get a PDF Export of Categories analysis
You can create a PDF report of all the information listed above, exactly like you can see in the web interface. To create an export, click PDF Export in the upper right corner of the tab contents.
If you wish to create a report using more than one section of your study’s results, go to the Export tab.
