Design a good taxonomy

Jan Cerman, David Klement, Michael Andrews
17 minutes
Taxonomy
0% complete
When creating a taxonomy, you need to make a few decisions to end up with a well-functioning result. Uncover 5 rules to help you create an easy-to-use taxonomy for your project.

The design process

1. Scope

Decide what your taxonomy needs to cover. For example, if you’re selling cars, you want to cover car types, brands, fuel, and so on.

2. Granularity

Think about how detailed you need the taxonomy to be. Always base this on what’s important to your business. Don’t categorize just for the sake of categorization. Below is an example of how NOT to do it. Check out what’s wrong and avoid such mistakes in your taxonomies. 🤞🏻

3. One term per concept

When you have the scope and granularity sorted out, you need to pick one term for each concept. For instance, some people say cars run on gas, others call it petrol. It’s the same thing. Pick one term to avoid confusion.

4. Define the terms

Define the terms’ intended use. That’s important so people in your organization know that, in British English, the term gas is intended for cars that run on petrol.

5 tips for creating a great term structure

Meet the following rules, and you’ll create a taxonomy that’s functional and easy to use.

1. Use mutually exclusive terms

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