Practical Taxonomy Design
November 10, 2010
11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. ET
Joseph Busch and Jill Tabuchi
Agenda
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What is Taxonomy?
Concept and Development
Evaluation
Follow-on Interviews
Card Sorting Validation
What’s Next?
What is a Taxonomy
• Overall scheme for organizing content to solve a business
problem:
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3
Improve search
Browse for content on an enterprise-wide portal
Enable business users to syndicate content
Provide the basis for content re-use
Agenda
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What is Taxonomy?
Strategies for Taxonomy Design
Taxonomy Evaluation
Follow-on Interviews
Card Sorting Validation
What’s Next?
Strategy for Growing the Starter Taxonomy
• Following the taxonomy workshop, assess what the Starter
Taxonomy includes:
– A top level taxonomy
– Perhaps some or all second levels
– Metadata and pick list values
Strategy for Growing the Starter Taxonomy
1. Evaluate the work products of the
workshop
2. Determine taxonomy gaps and
areas for validation
3. Set up interviews with SMEs to
close gaps, get validation
4. Run a card sorting exercise
Agenda
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•
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What is Taxonomy?
Concept and Development
Evaluation
Follow-on Interviews
Card Sorting Validation
What’s Next?
Evaluating the Taxonomy
• Category Refinement
• Identifying the gaps
– Where the taxonomy is not developed
– Where additional validation is necessary
• Taxonomy focus aligned with Value Statement
• Assess metadata groups and pick list items
Evaluate the Starter Taxonomy
• Employees
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Benefits
Professional Development
Employee Operations
Help Center
• Products
– ?
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Sales/Marketing
Financials
Safety/Health
Research
Manufacturing Process
Second level developed, needs
validation from HR subject matter
expert
No second level defined, need to
meet with product specialist for
topics
Change Safety/Health to
Health, Wellness, and Safety
Agenda
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•
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What is Taxonomy?
Concept and Development
Evaluation
Follow-on Interviews
Card Sorting Validation
What’s Next?
Taxonomy Interviews
• Introduce the taxonomy redesign effort
– Define what taxonomy is
– Define how the taxonomy will be used
– Communicate the business value this effort has
• Alert the subject matter expert that their input is critical to how
users find information within the taxonomy structure
• Send information ahead of time
Taxonomy Interviews
• Share workshop designed taxonomy and “nouns” to validate with SMEs
• If you’re filling a gap, give examples of “nouns” the workshop used to
develop the top level category
Benefits & Compensation
Leave
Medical Benefits
Dental Benefits
Vision Benefits
Disability and Life Insurance
Health and Wellness
Education & Tuition
Retirement and Investment
Bonuses
Payroll
Discounts and Rewards
Vacation
Sick Time
Salary
Hourly
Contract
Associate Rewards
Corporate
Insurance
Tuition Reimbursement
401k/Pension
Bonus
Signon
Retail
Disability
Referral Bonus
Wages and Salary
Vacation/Time Off
Health and Wellness
Education Assistance
Stock Options
Vision/Dental
Annual Assessment
Investing/Retirement
Leave of Absence
Continuing Education
Referral Program
Medical
Dental
Vision
Providers
Contacts
401k
Vacation/Holiday
Medical Leave
Reimbursement
Salary/Wages
Disability
Education
Tuition
Retirement
Agenda
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What is Taxonomy?
Concept and Development
Evaluation
Follow-on Interviews
Card Sorting Validation
What’s Next?
What is Card Sorting?
• An exercise completed by many people to gather consensus and
agreement in the grouping of “child” objects in “parent” groups
Which group
does the card
belong with?
Health
Open
Enrollment
Benefits
Brochure
Board of
Directors
Bios
Sales and
Marketing
About the
Company
Benefits of Card Sorting
• Card sorting helps to validate the taxonomy in several ways:
– Validation if there is agreement:
• The groups and their naming make sense
• The relationship between the “child” topic and the “parent” object
makes sense
– Insight to revise if there isn’t agreement:
• Was the card or “child” topic confusing?
• Was the group or “parent” topic name confusing?
• Are there two or more “parent” topics that have similar meaning?
– Communication tool – “A taxonomy created by and validated by the
users.”
Creating an Exercise
• Core components to building a card sorting exercise:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Select an online tool to run the exercise
Creating a list of cards
Preparing the taxonomy groups
Select a group of participants
Establish a time frame to run the exercise
Online Card Sorting Tools
• Websort.net
– Online card sorting tool
– Designed to conduct card sorting studies
– Intuitive user interface
• Web Survey Tools
– Zoomerang
– SurveyMonkey
• SharePoint Survey Template
– A good option if you already have SharePoint
Creating a List of Cards
• A “card” should be the name of a sample document or title that is
frequently used and recognizable.
• Map cards to their “expected” taxonomy topic
• Have diversity in cards that are mapped to different topics in the
taxonomy
• Examples of intranet “cards”:
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Organization Chart
Branding/Style Guide
Annual Sales Report
Corporate Capabilities Brochure
Adopt a Highway Clean Up
Administration Service Request
Risk Identification Checklist
Select a Group of Participants
• A web card sorting exercise allows many people to participate
within a short amount of time.
• Most exercises should take a person 10 minutes to complete
• Select a cross-functional group of people to participate
• The participants should be prospective users of the system
• 75-125 participants are recommended
– Keep in mind that not everyone invited to take the exercise will take it
– Numbers greater than 125 do not tend to impact results
Running the Exercise
• Send a link to the exercise via email or post on the intranet
– A taxonomy build by users and validated by users
• Give participants around 4-5 days to complete the survey
– Send reminder emails
• Leverage communication for the exercise as a way to introduce
intranet/site redesign
• Add any additional communication material describing the
intranet/site redesign
Analyzing Results
Greater than 65%
agreement in one
topic
Close to 65%
agreement, what
were other
factors?
Less than 65%
agreement,
evaluate card and
topics
Analyzing Results
• Green – Greater than 65% Agreement:
– These taxonomy topics make sense to participants
– Cards were clear and understandable by participants
– Little or no modification to these taxonomy topics
• Orange – Close to, but less than 65% Agreement:
– Assess the taxonomy topic and the card
• Could either be made more clear?
– Consider revising the taxonomy topic or card
– Could linking a document/card in two places within the taxonomy solve
the findability issue?
• Red – Less than 65% Agreement:
– Assess the taxonomy topic and card
• What is vague or unclear?
– Re-evaluate the taxonomy topic and the clarity of the card title
Post Card Sorting Exercise
• Modify or “word smith” the taxonomy to respond to trends
illustrated in card sorting exercise
• Consider re-running the card sorting exercise with the revisions
to the taxonomy
• Prepare taxonomy for use within the website, portal, intranet, or
document management system
• Repeat practical taxonomy design process and card sorting
exercise as the taxonomy changes
Agenda
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•
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What is Taxonomy?
Concept and Development
Evaluation
Follow-on Interviews
Card Sorting Validation
What’s Next?
Follow-on Process
• Consistently and repeatedly test progress using combination
of card sorting exercises, focus groups, and usability surveys
• Engage additional end users for validation and guidance
• Hold additional workshops to refine and provide greater detail
• Utilize focus groups for further validation and naming
• Match with analytics, content analysis, and technologies as
complexity increases
Taxonomy Development Process
Identify
Business
Case
Planning
Maintenance
& Evolution
Knowledge
gathering
Taxonomy
team
formation
Testing &
Review
Content
Population
Focus group
formation
Taxonomy
Construction
Thank you!
Jill Tabuchi
jtabuchi@ppc.com
Joseph Busch
Joseph.busch@ppc.com
ASIST Taxonomy Webinar Series
• Introduction to Business Taxonomies
– November 5th 11:30am-12:30pm EST
– Joseph Busch and Zach Wahl
• Taxonomy Workshops
– November 8th 11:30am-12:30pm EST
– Rachel Sondag and Jill Tabuchi
• Practical Taxonomy Design
– November 10th 11:30am-12:30pm EST
– Jill Tabuchi and Joseph Busch
• Taxonomy Governance and Maintenance
– November 12th 11:30am-12:30pm EST
– Nick Nylund and Joseph Busch
Summary
• This session detailed effective methodologies to take taxonomy
design inputs from taxonomy workshops and use them to build
and validate taxonomies for your organization.