Census History Website Card Sorting Study Plan

The Census Bureau plans to conduct a card-sorting study under the generic clearance for questionnaire pretesting research (OMB number 0607-0725). The card-sorting study will gather user feedback on the way content items should be grouped together on a new page on the Census History web site.

Card sorting is a standard usability technique for developing the underlying structure of a Web site. The card-sorting sessions will help us to generate a user-centered design for the new Census History Web page entitled History: Sights and Sounds. The overall aim of the card sorting is to help categorize and organize photographs on the new page in a way that is logical to typical users of the Census History Web site.

The photographs will be supplied by the Census Bureau’s History staff. All photographs in the study will be ones that will be included on the Sights and Sounds Web page when it is complete. Photographs will be printed in color and affixed to 6-in by 8-in cards with a few lines of text describing the photo. The final text will be shown with the photographs on the completed Web page. A sample of the photographs and text to be used in this card-sorting study is enclosed.

During July 2009, staff from the Census Bureau’s Usability Lab will conduct a maximum of 20 test sessions in the Census Bureau's focus group room. Participants will be recruited to be diverse in age, race, ethnicity, and gender. Five participants will be high-school students (approximately aged 14-17); five will be college-age students (approximately aged 18-25); five will be middle-age adults (approximately aged 30-60); five will be retired older adults (over the age of 65). These age groups have been identified by the History staff as typical users of the Census History Web site. Participants will be recruited through SRD employees (high-school and college students of families and friends) and through the SRD Usability Lab’s database (college students, middle-age, adults and older adults). Each participant will have at least one year of prior experience in navigating different Web sites. However, the participants will not have had prior experience with the Census History Web site. Participants will have no known disabilities.

Each session will include a test administrator and one participant, who will be asked to organize 100 Census History-related photographs into meaningful piles, label the piles, and discuss the labeled piles with the test administrator. Participants will first place the cards into any pile they would like. Then, using a sticky tab, they will be asked to create a label for their pile. If there are too few piles (e.g., fewer than three) the test administrator will encourage the respondent to separate them into smaller piles. If there are too many piles (e.g., 20-30) the test administrator will encourage the respondent to collapse the small groups of cards into fewer piles.

The test administrator will ask participants to comment on any photographs or terms they see on the cards describing the photos that seem confusing or meaningless. The test administrator will have participants fill out an initial questionnaire on their experience with computers, the Internet, and Census Bureau terminology as well as a final questionnaire designed to garner final thoughts on the text on the cards. A copy of these questionnaires is enclosed.

Participants will be told that their participation is voluntary and that the information they provide will be confidential. We will provide a $40 stipend for expenses to each participant who completes a session.

The estimated time for completion of each card-sorting session is one hour. Thus, the total estimated burden time for testing is a maximum of 20 hours.

The contact person for questions regarding data collection or statistical aspects for this project is:

Jennifer C. Romano

Human Factors & Usability Group

Statistical Research Division

Room 5K102D

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, D.C. 20233

(301) 763- 3577

[email protected]