Taxonomy Design Insights

Purpose-Driven Taxonomy Design

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A purpose-driven taxonomy is designed to meet a clearly defined set of goals and use cases. This sounds obvious, but it's a step many organizations gloss over—often with frustratingly mixed outcomes as a result. In this article, I'll discuss a process I use for selecting terms, creating structure, and vetting design approaches on both small and large scale taxonomy projects. I'll also offer advice on where LLMs do—and don't—fit into a purpose-driven taxonomy design workflow.

AI Supported Taxonomy Term Generation

Diamond patterned wire fence with small circular metal tags printed with names hanging from each vertice

Underneath the hype and hyperbole of "AI" capabilities, there's a compelling use case for responsibly using LLMs to help information architecture practitioners make better use of time-tested analysis and classification approaches and tools. Here is an example of one way that LLMs and rules-based text analysis techniques can be coordinated to generate tags for a topic taxonomy that has fallen out of sync with its content set.

Taxonomy Boot Camp 2024 Themes & Takeaways

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Two weeks ago it was again my pleasure and privilege to attend Taxonomy Boot Camp (TBC) in Washington, DC. This was TBC's 20th year, and, in the four times I've attended since 2016, was the strongest argument yet for the enduring importance of well-designed and integrated taxonomies. In addition to tracks for "taxonomy fundamentals," this year's event featured tracks for "taxonomy applications," "taxonomy operations," and "advanced data and semantic layers." This is my roundup of the themes and insights that stood out to me most.

Elemeno Health Structured Content Design & Development

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I helped the micro-learning education startup Elemeno Health design, develop, and release a structured content solution to more effectively create, publish, and reuse thousands of hyperlocal, clinician-focused resources at patient care locations across the country. Elemeno's content now works harder and lasts longer, allowing it to scale more effectively over time and deliver greater value to Elemeno customers.

The Informed Life: Structured Content

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In this episode of "The Informed Life," Jorge Arango and I discuss the role of structured content in making complex ideas clear online. Topics include the transition from traditional web pages to a data-centric web design, the role of information architecture in making complex information systems accessible and intelligible to both humans and machines, and the challenges and opportunities in using semantically sound structured content to enhance digital information's usability and accessibility.

UW Medicine

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I helped UW Medicine create a content strategy and information architecture approach for integrating health and wellness content into their main website in a systematic, goal-oriented way. Now, UW Medicine’s UX and content teams can use their vast library of health and wellness content to help site visitors find the resources they seek—and engage with the healthcare professionals and services they need.