taming taxonomy—a practical intro

taming taxonomy | @albertatrebla UX Cambridge 2013

Taming TaxonomyTips & tools for crea/ng structure with the user in mind

alberta soranzo | @albertatreblaUX Cambridge 2013 – Cambridge, UK

photo: jessica duverneay/


TAXONOMY, NOT TAXIDERMY

photo: ifish.net


YOU’RE IN LUCK


CASE STUDYCENTER FOR HEALTH POLICY RESEARCH (CHPR)CALIFORNIA HEALTH INTERVIEW SURVEY (CHIS)


CLIENT


SIX SITES ONE PORTAL


SAY WHAT?


TAXONOMY

Taxonomies are collec<ons of facets, which are created by organizing concepts into categories.


EXISTING TAXONOMY

Categoriza<on and meaning

How users consume site content

How users find content


NEW TAXONOMY

System of categories and labels

Parent-‐child rela<onships

Cross-‐lis<ng (poly-‐hierarchy)

Synonyms

Governance


THE PROBLEM


THE PROBLEM

NO CANDY?


THE PROBLEM

CHPR CHIS


THE (MAIN) QUESTIONS

Which exact words should be used?

Where do they go in rela<on to the others?

Are there excep<ons?


WDTPBBS?

•Categories should be mutually exclusive, unless they are poly-‐hierarchical.

•Consider the balance breadth and depth, erring on the side of broad and shallow for new sites.

•Taxonomy = a slow layer, while naviga/on may be slightly faster


TAXONOMY MATRIX

STRATEGYUser Centered Business Centered

SIZEScalable Finite

COVERAGEComprehensive Section Specific

APPLICATIONCross-channel Web-centric

TIME SENSITIVITYAspirational Current

METAPHORUniform/Exact Mixed Approach

STRUCTUREPoly-hierarchical Mutually Exclusive

LANGUAGE

SEO Preferential Natural

Branding Authoritative

Concept: Jessica DuVerneayThe Understanding Group


1. CURRENT TAXONOMY REVIEW

CHPR CHIS


2. KEYWORD RESEARCH

CHPR CHIS


3. USER RESEARCH

John Lu Leslie Masterson Bob SuFer

Researcher Marketer Legislator

Dr. Lu, a postdoc at UCSF is performing data analysis to inform his research on the the correla/on between medical costs, early-‐onset diabetes and residence distance from parks. He has billing data from insurance companies that he can link to geolocated CHIS data. Before he submits his applica/on for analysis, he wants to create a table of childhood diabetes rate in areas that are more than 2 miles away from a park.

Leslie is the Northern California marke/ng manager for a small producer of air filters. She is looking to market her product to consumers and industrial air condi/oning installers and prefers to concentrate her ini/al efforts on areas where air quality causes asthma and other respiratory condi/ons.

Bob is running for a seat in the California legislature and the focus of his campaign is improving health. He wants to understand what the top 5 health needs within his legisla/ve district are. Bob has no sta/s/cs background but understands the importance of data and wants to find authorita/ve informa/on to be used in his campaign material.

GOALCreate map to prove hypothesis

GOALMarket product in communi/es affected by asthma and respiratory condi/ons.

GOALPriori/ze solu/ons for his cons/tuents.

photo: flickr.com (j.spiridigliozzi, victor1558, niznoz)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/76029035@N02/



4. TERM SORTING/AFFINITY DIAGRAMMING

photo: christina tran


5. SEO/SME VALIDATION

OPTIONS CHOICE

Benefit Package, Work Insurance, Employee Insurance, Employee Health Plan

Employment-‐based coverage

Poor, Indigent, Impoverished, Below Federal Poverty Line Low-‐income

Handicapped, Disabled, Blinds, Deaf Persons, Persons with disabiliMes


6. SYNONYMS & POLYHIERARCHY

MANAGED CARE DISABILITY

= =

Medicare, Health Insurance, Comprehensive Medical Insurance, Group Medical Insurance, Health Plan, Medicaid, Medi-‐cal, Indian Health Services, Healthy Families

Handicap, Deficit, Impairment, Mental Impairment, Physical Impairment, Health Problem, Func/onal Impairment, Incapacity, Ailment


RESULTING TAXONOMY


TAXONOMY. WHAT, HOW AND WHY

WHAT (DELIVERABLES) HOW (USES) WHY (GOALS)

• Sitemap• Content Inventory•Wireframes• Controlled Vocabulary

• Tags• Categories• Filters• URLs• Glossary

• Naviga/on• Content strategy• Findability• Organiza/on• Cross-‐channel Consistency

• Governance• Understanding• Branding


SIX SITES ONE PORTAL


TAXONOMY VS NAVIGATION VS IA

TAXONOMY Metadata(informa/on about informa/on)

NAVIGATION Wayfinding (how visitors move around)

INFORMATION ARCHITECTUREStructural design of informa/on(informed by taxonomy, helps build navigaMon)


CARD SORTING


TAXONOMY

Taxonomies are collec<ons of facets, which are created by organizing concepts into categories.


WHAT IS CARD SORTING?

Card sor<ng is one of the best ways to idenMfy categories by having controlled tests with groups of users to create categories.

source thetaxonomyblog.com


WHY USE CARD SORTING?

• Input into informa<on design process•Define overall content hierarchy and structure•Design naviga<on, menu and taxonomies•Outline users’ mental models

source thetaxonomyblog.com


HOW DO YOU DO CARD SORTING?

Par<cipants organize topics into categories that make sense to them and may also help label these groups.

source flickr.com/photos/nedrichards/


OPEN CARD SORTING

Par<cipants organize topics into groups that make sense to them, then name the groups.



CLOSED CARD SORTING

Par<cipants organize topics into predefined groups.



DESIGN THE TEST

•Create list of content topics. •Prepare the cards.•Email par<cipants a link to the study.•Provide instruc<ons for the sort, including expected length.•Thank the par<cipant for their <me.


GRANULARITY

• Individual pages•Func<onality •Small groups of pages•Whole sec<ons of the site


WHAT USERS SEE - CARDS


WHAT USERS DO - PUT CARDS IN GROUPS


WHAT USERS DO - NAME GROUPS


WHAT YOU SEE - CARDS


WHAT YOU SEE - CATEGORIES


WHAT YOU SEE - SIMILARITY MATRIX


WHAT YOU SEE - STANDARDIZATION GRID


WHAT YOU SEE - DENDOGRAM


WHAT YOU SEE - PARTICIPANT CENTRIC ANALYSIS


THE FUTUREPredictive Cognitive Semantic Analysis


PCSA

Seamus O’Leary, PhDQueen’s UniversityIns/tute of Cogni/on and CultureBelfast

“Predic/ve Cogni/ve Seman/c Analysis: An Algorithm for Place-‐Making in Cross-‐Channel Experiences” (2010)

source gerard1972.deviantart.com

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=MspjsU03bz5ycM&tbnid=j3jdZkgD5tL9zM:&ved=0CAQQjB0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgerard1972.deviantart.com%2Fart%2FQueen-s-University-Belfast-119270052&ei=okGVUb6tNqWqigKPmYCwCA&bvm=bv.46471029,d.cGE&psig=AFQjCNEcgs6qPZRWbFeplYer6424X9roog&ust=1368822416847774



PCSA

PredicMve CogniMve SemanMc Analysis


“I had an intui/on that by interpola/ng results of best merge dendograms with an/-‐pajern libraries and text readability scores, my algorithm would accurately predict the boundaries of cogni/ve and seman/c mapping.”




PCSA

PredicMve CogniMve SemanMc Analysis


• Parallax Theory of Brain Modeling (Johnston, Neil et al.)

• Cogni/ve Disenthropy Theory (Blake, McGuinn)

• Systemic Distribu/on of Neural Pathways Model (Mould?)

• Fibonacci Sequence • Limit of Consecu/ve Quo/ents Paradox (Kepler)

• Structural Malta Approach to Card Sor/ng (Mann, Leo, Penn)




PCSA


NDA




PCSA TOOL AND API

PredicMve CogniMve SemanMc Analysis(exp. release 2014)


• Solid taxonomy

• Comparable sitemaps (CI 97.2%-‐99.71)

• Increased findability, bejer SEO



IS THIS THE FUTURE?Predictive Cognitive Semantic Analysis


NO WAY!


WHAT CARD SORTING HELPS WITH

•VeZng naviga<on schemes•Defining informa<on architecture• Improving findability


CARD SORTING GIVES YOU

•Data to support decisions•Cheap method of tes<ng labels and structure•User-‐centered taxonomy


BE A TAXONOMIST(it’s your turn)


MEET THE TAXIDERMIST

photo: flickr.com : (cowgirljules)

1. Exis<ng taxonomy (new site)2. Keyword Research3. User Research4. Term Sor<ng/Affinity Diagramming5. Taxonomy6. Naviga<on


THE EXERCISE


USER RESEARCH

Doug Rowland George Byth Amanda SuFon

Fishing enthusiast Gamekeeper and guide Amateur taxidermist

Doug is an avid fisherman who travels extensively to fish in exo/c and some/mes isolated spots.He is an ajorney in Oxwich and has just bought a new office in Edinburgh which he would like to decorate with his prized catches.Doug is frustrated by the lack of taxidermists specializing in fish in the UK and is willing to travel or ship his specimens in order to get what he wants. He is also looking to purchase containers to preserve his catch during his travels.

George has just begun working as gamekeeper for the Forestry Commission Scotland at the Loch Lomond and The Trossach Na/onal Park. The wildlife exhibi/on in the David Marshall Lodge Visitor Centre where he is based contains several taxidermied animals in poor shape and George needs to learn how to properly care of them. Addi/onally, George’s boss has asked him to research taxidermy professionals to engage on contract and for a series of lectures in the na/onal parks.

Amanda is a re/ree in her six/es. She lives Thurso and owns a cojage in Kingussie where she hunts red deer. Now that she has /me to spare, she has decided to appren/ce with a taxidermist. Amanda would be willing to follow an online course, but will need to purchase books and supplies. Moreover, she has a deer and a fox in her freezer that she would like to get stuffed, but can’t find an affordable taxidermist.

GOALFinding fish taxidermy specialist, buying equipment.

GOALLearning how to care for taxidermied animals, loca/ng a professional.

GOALLearning taxidermy either in person or online, buying supplies, gerng catches taxidermied.

photo: flickr.com (charliereece, jonhoward, widnr)



GO!taming taxonomy | @albertatrebla UX Cambridge 2013

THE EXERCISE


CARD SORTING & TAXONOMY RESOURCES

BooksCard SorMng -‐ Designing Usable CategoriesDonna SpencerRosenfeld Media, 2009

Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human BehaviorIndy YoungRosenfeld Media, 2008

The Accidental Taxonomist Heather HeddenInforma/on Today, Inc. 2010

InformaMon Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-‐Scale Web Sites Peter Morville and Louis RosenfeldO’Reilly, 2008

Pervasive InformaMon Architecture: Designing Cross-‐Channel User ExperiencesAndrea Resmini and Luca Rosa/Morgan Kaufmann, 2011


CARD SORTING & TAXONOMY RESOURCES

Card sorMng toolsOnline

conceptcodify.comop/malworkshop.com/op/malsort.htmsimplecardsort.comusabilitest.com/CardSor/nguxpunk.com/websort/

Offline (spreadsheets)Joe Laman/a – boxesandarrows.com/?p=2803Donna Spencer – maadmob.com.au/?p=45Mike Rice – www.informoire.com/?p=162

How-‐tosop/malworkshop.com/help/kbop/malworkshop.com/blog/how-‐to-‐pick-‐cards-‐for-‐card-‐sor/ng

Illustration: Dan Willis


THANK YOU!alberta soranzo @albertatrebla

albertasoranzo.com

taming taxonomy—a practical intro

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