Design a good taxonomy

Jan Cerman, David Klement, Michael Andrews

17 minutes

Taxonomy

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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.

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. 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. 🤞🏻

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.

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.

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

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The design process

Play video on https://kontent.ai/model/master-taxonomies/design-taxonomy

1. Scope

2. Granularity

3. One term per concept

4. Define the terms

5 tips for creating a great term structure

Play video on https://kontent.ai/model/master-taxonomies/design-taxonomy

1. Use mutually exclusive terms

Too complicated categorization with levels that don’t add much value. People buying cars typically don't need to know which continent and country the brand is from.

The design process

5 tips for creating a great term structure

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