Census Home Page Card Sorting Study Plan

The Census Bureau plans to conduct additional research under the generic clearance for questionnaire pretesting research (OMB number 0607-0725). We will be conducting a remote card-sorting study on the terminology used on the new U.S. Census Bureau home page.

The card sorting activity will be a closed card sort, which utilizes pre-determined topics for sorting. The goal of card sorting is to capture potential Census.gov website users’ preferences for grouping and labeling of navigational elements on the Census.gov website. The three goals of this study are to determine how users organize the major topics of the Census.gov website, to determine alternative words users employ to describe topics available on the website, and to identify which topics should, from the user's perspective, have prominence on the web site.

In February 2012, staff from the Census Bureau’s usability lab will collect and analyze data from up to 100 respondents remotely through the online tool called WebSort at http://websort.net/s/A9B77E. We will recruit researchers, journalists, Census Bureau employees, and members of the general population via email through the CSM Human Factors and Usability Research group’s participant database and through personal contacts. The goal is to obtain at least 40 responses, so emails will be sent to 50-100 people. Respondents will not be given an honorarium, but the recruitment email (Attachment A) will include an offer to send the results of the study via email once it is complete.

Screen shots from WebSort are included in Attachment B. Respondents will be informed that their response is voluntary and that the information they provide is confidential and will be seen only by employees involved in the research project. All results made public will be at a summary level only and will not disclose any personal information.

The testing will be completed on the respondents’ own computers or any web-ready device. Instructions will be provided to respondents only via computer. Respondents will login using only their email address. No password is required. The email addresses will be collected so that the results can be shared with the respondents after the study is complete. Respondents will then be asked a series of background questions (Attachment C), which will be added to the WebSort tool as online survey questions through Survey Monkey and then will presented with the card-sorting tool. The list of terms to be sorted is included as Attachment D. Following completion of the card-sorting task, respondents will receive a series of debriefing questions about their experience with the survey through Survey Monkey (Attachment E). Respondents will not be compensated for their participation.

The estimated time for completion of the card-sorting task and associated questionnaires is one hour. Thus, the maximum burden time for this research is 100 hours.

The contact person for questions regarding data collection and statistical aspects of the design of this research is listed below:

Kathleen T. Ashenfelter, Ph.D.

Center for Survey Measurement

Room 5K505

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, D.C. 20233

301-763-4922

[email protected]

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