Practical Taxonomy DesignNovember 10, 2010

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. ET

Joseph Busch and Jill Tabuchi

Agenda

• 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:– Improve search – Browse for content on an enterprise-wide portal– Enable business users to syndicate content– Provide the basis for content re-use

3

Agenda

• 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

Agenda

• 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– Benefits– Professional Development– Employee Operations– Help Center

• Products– ?

• 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

• 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

Benefits & CompensationLeaveMedical BenefitsDental BenefitsVision BenefitsDisability and Life InsuranceHealth and WellnessEducation & TuitionRetirement and InvestmentBonusesPayroll

Discounts and Rewards

• 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

Agenda

• What is Taxonomy?• Concept and Development• Evaluation• Follow-on Interviews• Card Sorting Validation• What’s Next?

What is Card Sorting?

BenefitsBenefits Sales and MarketingSales and Marketing

About the CompanyAbout the Company

BrochureBrochure Board of Directors

Bios

Board of Directors

Bios

Health Open

Enrollment

Health Open

Enrollment

Which group does the card belong with?

Which group does the card belong with?

• An exercise completed by many people to gather consensus and agreement in the grouping of “child” objects in “parent” groups

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. Select an online tool to run the exercise2. Creating a list of cards3. Preparing the taxonomy groups4. Select a group of participants5. 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”:

– 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

Greater than 65% agreement in one

topic

Close to 65% agreement, what

were other factors?

Close to 65% agreement, what

were other factors?

Less than 65% agreement,

evaluate card and topics

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

• 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

Thank you!

Jill Tabuchijtabuchi@ppc.com

Joseph BuschJoseph.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.