Before collecting cards for your card sorting session, consider conducting a content audit. This is a method for inventorying your existing content and selecting the most relevant items. If yours is a brand-new product or service, brainstorm and list all the information you want to include in your session.

Now, you can start listing groups for users to sort, group into categories, and label. The number of cards may vary between 30 and 60 or be slightly more. You can list all the possible cards and discard irrelevant ones. Too many cards will overwhelm users, prevent them from making informed decisions, and also make data analysis difficult for you.^[1]

Avoid using cards with similar words or synonyms — it may confuse users, and they'll end up grouping these cards together.