Practical Taxonomy Design November 10, :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 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 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 & 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 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? Benefits Sales and Marketing About the Company Brochure Board of Directors Bios Health Open Enrollment 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 exercise 2.Creating a list of cards 3.Preparing the taxonomy groups 4.Select a group of participants 5.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 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 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 s 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 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 Planning Knowledge gathering Taxonomy team formation Focus group formation Taxonomy Construction Content Population Testing & Review Maintenance & Evolution Identify Business Case

Thank you! Jill Tabuchi Joseph Busch

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.