Card Sorting
How we used open and closed card sorting to validate Meridian's information architecture before writing a single line of code.
Why Card Sorting
Before building the dashboard, we needed to know how our users mentally group features. Card sorting let us observe their mental models directly — no leading questions, no designer bias.
Methodology
Open Card Sort
12 participants grouped 40 feature cards into categories they named themselves. We ran this first to avoid imposing our own taxonomy on the results.
Closed Card Sort
18 participants sorted the same cards into 6 predefined categories derived from the open sort. This validated whether our proposed IA matched user expectations.
Key Findings
- License & Billing — users expected these together, not split across Settings and Account.
- Analytics vs Logs — 78% placed real-time metrics and historical logs in separate top-level groups.
- Security — API keys, 2FA, and session management clustered tightly; users see these as one concern.
Impact on Meridian
The card sort results directly shaped our sidebar navigation and settings hierarchy. We collapsed three planned top-level sections into one License hub and elevated Security to a first-class nav item. Tree-testing follow-up confirmed a 94% task-success rate on the revised structure.