Taxonomy Fundamentals Workshop

Transcription

1 Taxonomy Fundamentals Workshop Taxonomy Boot Camp, October 16, 2012, Washington, DC Marjorie Hlava, President Access Innovations, Inc. Heather Hedden Hedden Information Management

2 Introductions Marjorie Hlava President, Access Innovations, Inc. Heather Hedden Taxonomy Consultant, Hedden Information Management Author, The Accidental Taxonomist

3 Outline The basics 30 minutes Taxonomatch 15 minutes More details: Polyhierarchies and Facets 30 minutes (including exercises) Implementation and applications 15 minutes Q & A

4 More Details Polyhierarchies Facets

5 Polyhierarchies Term Term Child Term 1 Child Term 2 Child Term 1 Child Term 2 Grandchild 1 Grandchild 2 Grandchild 3 Grandchild 4 Grandchild 1 Grandchild 2 Hierarchy Polyhierarchy

6 Polyhierarchies A term has a polyhierarchy if it has more than one broader term. Polyhierarchy is permitted if the hierarchical relationship is valid in both/all cases Remember All-and-Some test for each generic hierarchical relationship

7 Polyhierarchies Based on generic relationship Professions Motor vehicles Musicians Educators Cars Trucks Music Teachers Light trucks

8 Polyhierarchies Based on different kinds of hierarchical relationships/ different means of categorizing (less common) Bodies of Water United States Lakes Utah Great Salt Lake

9 Polyhierarchy - Pluses Polyhierarchy is useful when It is obviously logical for select terms (cross-overs/hybrids, e.g. Music teachers or Light Trucks) It is indicated by different stakeholder views Indexers/taggers browse the taxonomy hierarchically End-user testing/input (e.g. card-sorting) indicates users are split as to where in the hierarchy an item belongs

10 Polyhierarchy - Pluses Retail website case study example: Sports taxonomy case study example: Health & Fitness Portable Fitness Electronics Fitness GPS Watches Car, Marine & GPS GPS Navigation Handheld GPS Fitness GPS Watches Back Exercises Dead Lifts Hamstring Exercises Dead Lifts

11 Polyhierarchy - Minuses Polyhierarchy is not so good when It violates hierarchical relationship standards It becomes excessive, perhaps more common than monohierarchies It is the result of different kinds of a categorization, and the presence of different kinds of categorization is confusing It is a small taxonomy and the user doesn t need or expect polyhierarchy

12 Polyhierarchy - Minuses Problems with excessive polyhierarchies: Familiar tree structure is lost. Users cannot see the logical hierarchy. Users spend too much time clicking through categories.

13 Polyhierarchy - Minuses Logical polyhierarchies, if done consistently, could become extensive. Example: creating polyhierarchies for products based on different classifications Glass Products Tableware Balls Soccer Equipment Wine Glasses Soccer Balls

14 Polyhierarchy - Minuses Multiple, potentially confusing categorizations: Place names in hierarchies for both geographic location and for place type Products in hierarchies for both material and for use Physical exercises in hierarchies for both body part and purpose/type (strength, endurance, etc.) It s OK, we can have polyhierarchies This is not always the best solution. Maybe facets should be used instead.

15 Polyhierarchies - Cases Violating hierarchical relationship standards Might be OK in some cases in some taxonomies But avoid overuse in polyhierarchies Case study example: Accessories as a narrower term to a product category Services as a narrower term to a product category Computers & Tablets Laptop & Netbook Computers Tablets, ipads & E Readers Desktop & All in One Computers Monitors Mice & Keyboards Printers Hard Drives & Storage Computer Memory Video Cards & PC Components Networking & Wireless Software Computer Accessories Computer Setup & Services

16 Polyhierarchies - Cases Violating hierarchical relationship standards within limits Computers & Tablets Laptop & Netbook Computers PC Laptops MacBooks Chromebooks Netbooks All Netbooks Netbook Cases Computer Setup & Services Laptop Accessories Computer Setup & Services Desktop & All-in-One Computers All-in-One Computers Towers Only Desktop Packages Computer Setup & Services Not OK OK OK

17 Polyhierarchies - Cases Do not create a polyhierarchy to both a parent and a grandparent. Cameras Grandparent of Digital SLR Cameras Digital Cameras Parent of Digital SLR Cameras Digital SLR Cameras

18 Polyhierarchies - Cases Might be better not to have polyhierarchies when the taxonomy is small and the number of top-level categories are few Case study: Client management documents of a financial services company has 114 topical terms categorized with just five broader terms: Account Information Client Information Client Status Disclosures & Notifications Approvals/Guidance Decided against polyhierarchies. Reason: Repeat users can memorize the small hierarchy. They don t expect polyhierarchy here.

19 Polyhierarchies - Conclusions Some is good. More isn t necessarily better. Polyhierarchies are best for isolated terms that can fall into two categories. Polyhierarchies can become too many in cases of overlays of two different categorization methods for numerous terms. (Facets may be better.) Polyhierarchies are useful, no matter how extensive, in term-focused thesauri Polyhierarchies should be more limited in fully displayed taxonomies

20 Polyhierarchies - Exercise Propose two broader terms for each: Hotel managers Printers Fish Egypt Bill Gates

21 Facets For serving faceted classification, which allows the assignment of multiple classifications to an object A dimension of a query; a type of concept Intended for searching with multiple terms in combination (post-coordination), one from each facet Can be for topics or for named entities, but generally not both Reflect the domain of content A subset of metadata fields

22 Facets Faceted Classification Mathematician/librarian S.R. Ranganathan (1920s) developed as an alternative to the Dewey Decimal System for books: Colon Classification 1. Personality topic or orientation 2. Matter things or materials 3. Energy actions 4. Space places or locations 5. Time times or time periods

23 Facets Facets are suitable for: Structured data with discernable metadata fields or database records Homogeneous data with similar types of characteristics (e.g. products in an e-commerce site) Example types of facets: For products category, brand, size, color, price range, features For people name, job title, gender, birth year, location, department For reports author, subject, audience, document type, language

24 Facets For enterprise taxonomies: Patrick Lambe, Organising Knowledge People and organizations Things and parts of things Activity cycles Locations For Web sites: Rosenfeld and Morville, Information Architecture Topic Product Document type Audience Geography Price

25 Facet Examples 1. Shoebuy.com - advanced search 2. My Recipes 3. Microbial Life Educational Resources

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28 My Recipes

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31 Facets & Hierarchies Combining Facets and Hierarchies 1. Have hierarchies within facets 2. Start with hierarchical categories and then limit further with facets

32 Facets & Hierarchies 1. Hierarchies within facets: indented display World Bank documents advanced search

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34 Facets & Hierarchies 2. Hierarchies of topics, then facets to narrow results: ThomasNet business directory Buzzillions product reviews Amazon.com books browse

35 Taxonomy Structures: Hierarchies One level per web page Yahoo directory ThomasNet browse

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39 Buzzillions

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41 Amazon > Books

42 Facets - Conclusions Advantages Supports more complex search queries by users Allows users to control the search refinement, narrowing or broadening in any manner or order Disadvantages Only suitable for somewhat structured, unified type of content that share the same multiple facets Might not support multiple terms selected at once from the same facet Often hidden from users under Advanced Search Requires investment of thorough (multifacted) indexing/tagging

43 Facets - Conclusions Facet Design Tips Number of facets: 4-8, with 5-6 as ideal Facets listed in logical, not alphabetical order Number of terms per facet: 2-25 Ideally not much more than can be viewed in a scroll box If the list is obvious (US states), then more is OK. Exception can be made for hierarchical Topics facet If <12 terms, then a logical display order If >12 terms, then alphabetical A two-level hierarchy (indented) within a facet is possible