Article
Making it tangible: Hybrid card sorting within qualitative interviews
Journal of Documentation
(2018)
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Originality/value
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.
Keywords
- Information experience,
- Semi-structured interviews,
- Qualitative research methods,
- Card sorting,
- Information research methods,
- Information user research
Disciplines
Publication Date
October 17, 2018
DOI
10.1108/JD-06-2018-0091
Publisher Statement
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Citation Information
Lettie Y. Conrad and Virginia M Tucker. "Making it tangible: Hybrid card sorting within qualitative interviews" Journal of Documentation Vol. 75 Iss. 2 (2018) p. 397 - 341 ISSN: 0022-0418 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/virginia-tucker/44/