{"id":1292,"date":"2016-04-26T21:12:48","date_gmt":"2016-04-26T20:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/?p=1292"},"modified":"2016-04-20T09:27:04","modified_gmt":"2016-04-20T08:27:04","slug":"n-card-sorting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2016\/04\/26\/n-card-sorting\/","title":{"rendered":">n: Card sorting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"030414_2232_Breathdeepb1.jpg\"Sometimes in interview work there will be a desire to find out about how and why people make decisions. This can be done in lots of ways – for example, using discrete choice experiments, scenarios\/vignettes, multiple choice questions, or card sorting exercises.<\/p>\n

Card sorting is a way of thinking about how things can be ranked, grouped, compared or the like. To take an example, in a group looking at how it might be good to engage men in healthy activities, small groups were given a pack of cards with different activities on them (ballet, football, badminton, egg whisking ..) and asked to rank them as best to worst by laying out on a table. They were asked to talk out loud to describe why they were suggesting the placements, and these conversations recorded.<\/p>\n

The ‘data’ from this part of the interview wasn’t really the end placement of the cards. This was interesting, but the real meat was in the tape – what was it folk were debating as key? What did they trade off? Why were some things ‘better’ and what did ‘better’ mean?<\/p>\n

Actions can sometimes speak louder than words, but often, actions encourage words and when we’re looking for more than numbers, words can be very important.<\/p>\n