Shopper Insights: Driving Retail Merchandising Strategy
March 31, 2025
Clarity Through Constraint: How to Judge AI Value Amidst the Noise
August 10, 2025Shopper Insights: Driving Retail Merchandising Strategy
March 31, 2025Clarity Through Constraint: How to Judge AI Value Amidst the Noise
August 10, 2025Case Study
Optimizing B2B Product Discovery: User-Driven IA for Technical Training
About The Client
A Fortune 500 technology division needed to update its technical training taxonomy to match customer expectations. Derive One conducted open card-sorting studies and advanced analysis to reveal natural groupings and intuitive labels.
The result: a refined information architecture that reduced confusion, aligned with user mental models, and improved findability across the training platform.
Study Impact
The research provided both data-driven and qualitative insights into the existing technical taxonomy structure, enabling the team to identify areas of potential confusion and opportunities for refinement in category grouping and naming conventions.
Objectives
This study aimed to align technical taxonomy labels with customer expectations and refine category naming conventions. Participants worked individually to develop new ideas for primary categories. Through an open card-sorting exercise of 50 subcategories, insights emerged on natural groupings, label clarity, and any additional categories needed.
Key Strategies Implemented
Open Card Sorting
In an open card sorting exercise, participants grouped a set of 50 cards, each representing a specific topic or skill area. They were asked to form intuitive groups, assign labels, and provide feedback on any items that were difficult to categorize or that they felt were missing. Conducted across multiple sessions, this study captured diverse perspectives on categorization and labeling preferences.
Crosstab, Correlation Matrix, and Dendrogram Analysis
With analysis using crosstab, correlation matrix and dendrogram, clear trends in user-driven categorization, highlighting consistent groupings, natural clustering of related topics, and key associations among items were revealed. These insights clarified how participants intuitively organized the content.
Impact
Enhanced Domain Category Structure
The study provided valuable insights that significantly improved the organization and alignment of product categories with user expectations in technical training.
Improved User Experience
The findings helped create a more intuitive and user-friendly interface for skill categorization, enhancing overall user satisfaction. It also increased the exposure of the client’s product through search engine due to optimized keyword and categorization.