As I started to look more into how I can incorporate Klondike Solitaire into my interventions, I came across “card sorting”. Card sorting is a UX research method which is a qualititative process. Study participants group individual labels written on notecards according to criteria that make sense to them.  

This method uncovers how the target audience’s domain knowledge is structured. It also can be a quantitative process as The main quantitative data output from a card sort is a set of similarity scores that measures the similarity of how users grouped their sets of information. If all users sorted two cards into the same pile, then the two items represented by the cards would have 100% similarity. If half the users placed two cards together and half placed them in separate piles, those two items would have a 50% similarity score. 

In short in Klondike Solitaire, you aim to sort a deck of cards by using attention, strategy, and memory: Seven piles of cards are in the middle of the table, the tableau, with each top card revealed. The goal is to assemble 13 cards of a suit, in ascending sequence from ace through king, on top of a pile.

In both cases, there’s an element of organizing cards. In Klondike solitaire, you organize cards into piles based on suits and ranks. In card sorting, participants organize cards into categories based on their own criteria. Solitaire often requires recognizing patterns and sequences to move cards effectively. Similarly, card sorting involves participants recognizing patterns and relationships between items to group them logically.