Hybrid card sort

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In a hybrid card sort, you give people categories to sort your cards into and allow them to create their own categories as well.

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Though it is distinct enough from open and closed card sorting to warrant its own approach, a hybrid card sort will be ‘more open’ or ‘more closed’, depending on the number and type of categories you create.

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When to use hybrid card sorting instead of open card sorting

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When you set far fewer categories than people need to sort all the cards, your hybrid card sort will lean towards open. This means people will be less likely to use your categories and more likely to create new categories to complete the card sort.

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Run a hybrid card sort like this if you:

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• want to generate ideas for grouping your information and want to give people a category pattern to take inspiration from
• see high agreement on some categories after an open card sort, but need clarity on some less certain groupings.

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When to use hybrid card sorting instead of closed card sorting

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When you set enough categories for people to sort all the cards into, your hybrid category will lean towards closed. This means people will be more likely to sort the cards into your categories only, and less likely to create new categories.

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Run a hybrid card sort like this if you:

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• are happy with the groupings and labels you have, but want people to have the option to suggest their own just in case
• want to find out if participants come up with category labels that are better than the ones you have
• want to avoid the risk of people ‘making do’ with categories they may not wholly agree with.

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In our city council example, we wanted to generate ideas for grouping topics, and we chose a hybrid card sort instead of an open card sort because we:

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• had high agreement on some categories that we felt made sense, but were less certain on others
• wanted people to keep our agreed-upon categories in mind when they created their own.

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In this image, you can see the four categories we gave people, and the participant has added three of their own (the ones where the title is underlined):

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Hybrid card sorting results are the same as open card sorting results because you’re allowing people to create and name their own categories, but your set categories will be standardized to replicate how they’re analyzed in a closed card sort.

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You’ll approach hybrid card sorting results with questions like:

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• How many people agree on where cards belong in your set categories?
• What new categories did people create, and are they better than yours?
• Did people create categories similar to the ones we gave them, or did they take a different approach?

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