Card sorting is one of the simplest and most useful methods in UX research, and FigJam is a perfect place to run it. I use it in client projects whenever we need to design or fix navigation, and I have now published my board as a free template in the Figma Community.
Card Sorting FigJam Template →
Why Card Sorting?
Most navigation problems start the same way: the menu reflects how the company thinks about itself, not how users think. Card sorting fixes that. You write each piece of content on a card, ask people to group the cards in a way that makes sense to them, and watch. The groups they create — and the names they give them — show you the categories that actually exist in users’ heads. That is your information architecture, straight from the source.
It is cheap, fast, and you can run it before a single page is designed. Like a curator deciding which artworks hang in which room, you find out where things belong before the visitors arrive — not after they get lost.
What’s in the Template
- 53 scrambled cards filled with sample grocery store content (Espresso, Kombucha, Sourdough Bread, Smoked Salmon…) — swap them for your own pages, products, or features
- 8 suggested groups (Beverages, Dairy & Eggs, Bakery, Snacks & Sweets, Fresh Produce, Frozen Foods, Pantry Staples, Meat & Seafood)
- Blank labels so participants can create their own groups
- Instructions panel and video walkthrough, so participants can sort without a moderator
The grocery data is there on purpose: everyone understands a supermarket, yet no two people sort it the same. Is ice cream Dairy or Frozen? Run it once as a warm-up with your team and the value of the method explains itself.
How to Use It
- Duplicate the file and replace the scrambled cards with your real content inventory. Keep it under ~60 cards — more than that exhausts participants.
- Choose your variant. Delete the suggested groups for an open sort (participants create and name groups — best early, when you’re discovering the structure). Keep them for a closed sort (best for testing an existing navigation). Keep both suggested groups and blank labels for a hybrid sort — my usual choice.
- Invite participants and let each person sort on their own copy of the board. 10–15 participants is enough; patterns stabilize early. It works moderated (ask them to think aloud) or async.
- Read the results. Look for three things: cards that were grouped together by almost everyone (your core categories), cards that landed somewhere different every time (rename them or link them from two places), and the group names participants invented (use their words as your labels — it’s free, tested copywriting).
- Turn it into your sitemap. The stable groups become your navigation sections. You can continue directly in FigJam with my Website Sitemap template.
Good luck with your sorting!
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