Information organization and taxonomy building An introduction David Rashty, Isaac Waisberg

Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information Edward Tufte

Contents Introduction (5 slides) Definition (6 slides) Building a taxonomy (8 slides) Conclusion (1 slide)

The problem The world's total yearly production of print, film, optical, and magnetic content would require roughly 1.5 billion gigabytes of storage. This is the equivalent of 250 megabytes per person for each man, woman, and child on earth. Introduction > The problem 1,500,000,000,000,000,000 bytes

The solution Organizing information in a logical manner so that it can be reliably accessed by anyone in the organization. In other words, building a taxonomy Introduction > The solution

Organizing information Introduction > Organizing information 1

Organizing information Introduction > Organizing information 2 IVIIIIII YXYXYXYX N = 11 Mean of X’s = 9.0 Mean of Y’s = 7.5 Regression line: Y=3+0.5X Correlation = 0.82

Organizing information Introduction > Organizing information 3

Definition A taxonomy is a structure for providing guidance over bits of information that relate to a specific context. It shows the user the groupings and relationships that can emerge from information in many patterns. Users can either zoom down to fine grained levels to pin down exact items, or they can scan and highlight different parts of the system. This process enables the potential creation of knowledge through open associations of relevant material. Definition > Slide 1 Directories Thesaurus Taxonomies

Definition > Slide 2 … providing guidance over bits of information …

Atlas of cyberspace Definition > Slide 3 … zoom down to fine grained levels to pin down exact items …

Yahoo Definition > Example 1

Dmoz Definition > Example 2

Lycos Definition > Example 3

Building a taxonomy Gather terms from as many sources as possible Define the preferred terms Link synonyms and related terms Group preferred terms by subject Identify broader and narrower terms Perform associative linking Testing Building a taxonomy

Gather terms Users, subject experts, the content itself, existing taxonomies. Entry terms should include synonyms and abbreviations, acronyms, and alternate spellings for all the important concepts in your document collection. Goto’s suggestion tool and similar tools can help finding relevant terms. Building a taxonomy > stage 1

Define preferred terms Create guidelines for selecting preferred terms. In a collection of health-related documents that include terms such as cancer, oncology, skin, and dermatology, you'll need to decide whether to select medical terminology or regular English as the preferred terms, based on the type of language most appropriate to your primary audience. Building a taxonomy > stage 2

Link synonyms This is where you map the synonyms, abbreviations, acronyms, and alternate spellings as "variant terms" to the preferred terms. Within reason, the more entry terms you have, the easier it will be for indexers and users to find the preferred terms. Building a taxonomy > stage 3

Group preferred terms This forms the foundation of your hierarchy. Definition of the subject hierarchy should be informed by a balance of top-down considerations (e.g., mission, vision, intended audiences) and bottom-up content analysis. Building a taxonomy > stage 4

Broader/Narrower Terms You're defining where each term fits within the hierarchy. Existing taxonomies that cover your subject area or industry can prove extremely useful in generating ideas for broader and narrower terms. Building a taxonomy > stage 5

Associative linking The definition of related terms is highly subjective. For each term ask the question: "Where will users want to go from here?" Choose only the most obvious and important relationships. Building a taxonomy > Stage 6

Testing Taxonomies are built in order to help users find the information they need. The metrics for success should be users satisfaction while fulfilling information tasks using the taxonomy you have built. Building a taxonomy > Stage 7

Conclusion Organizational structures within websites encourage emotional, fortuitous information seeking behavior. Directories are value laden tools of information organization that articulate a specific world view. Because taxonomies lay out synonymous, associative and hierarchical relationships, they function like guides to information. They support the dynamic process of finding information and facilitate associative thought. Conclusion

We thrive in information-thick worlds because of our marvelous and everyday capacities to the wheat from the chaff, and separate the sheep from the goats. Edward Tufte select editsingle outstructure highlightgroup harmonize pair merge synthesize boil down focus list catalog discriminateorganize isolate blend abstractlook into pigeonhole condense reduce choose categorize idealize scan distinguish screen pick oversort integrate inspect filter lump skip smooth chunk average approximate cluster aggregate outline summarize itemize review dip into flip through skim refineenumerate synopsize glean winnow