Web Development Information

Building a Great Intranet Taxonomy


While it may seem like a "quick and easy" task, defining the navigation structure and organization of your intranet site will be one of the most challenging tasks you will face in the course of your project. It is also one of the most critical success factors. The site structure, also referred to as the information architecture or taxonomy, is the foundation of your intranet. Creating an effective taxonomy is as much an art as it is a science. Use the wrong terms and your users won't be able to navigate by intuition. Make your site too deep and they will never find the content they're looking for.

One common myth is that if you integrate a search engine with your site you don't need to focus as much on the taxonomy. This is completely false. All web users can be generalized into one of 2 buckets; "browsers" or "searchers". Searchers, of course, will first use a search engine to locate content while browsers will manually look for the desired information by navigating the taxonomy. This is not to say that browsers never search, or vice versa, it merely suggests that all users have a preference for one method or the other when attempting to locate content. The most efficient site will have a well-organized taxonomy AS WELL AS a good search engine to satisfy both types of users.

Building your taxonomy

Creating a taxonomy on your own is arguably the best approach. After all, no one knows your organization's culture and terminology better than you. If you're short on professional taxonomists here are some tips to keep in mind when defining your taxonomy.

  • The overall taxonomy should be wide, not deep
  • Use primary terms rather than marketing oriented or slang terms (the goal is to use language that can be understood by a new employee on their first day of work)
  • Try to keep some rigidity to the taxonomy, at least at the top levels -- this promotes familiarity for the users and enhances usability
  • Build two taxonomies; the primary being functional-centric and the secondary being organization-centric underneath the functional-centric
  • Try to limit your structure to just 2-7 items under each branch, otherwise consolidate
  • Use real content to validate your taxonomy
  • Define, validate, re-tool, define, validate, re-tool, and so on -- taxonomy development is an iterative process
  • The structure should be very broad on top and narrow at the lowest levels

Remember that the taxonomy is a tool to locate content. The best way to verify you have a model that works is to use focus groups to test the structure. Ask the group where they would expect to find a specific example of content within the structure and see if that maps with what you've defined. If they keep missing, you need to go back and re-work the structure based on their feedback.

Bryan A. Mjaanes
Intranet101.com Admin
http://www.Intranet101.com


MORE RESOURCES:

Web Design Company in UK Offers Outsourced Web Development and ...
The Open Press (press release) - May 10, 2008
(OPENPRESS) May 9, 2008 -- Kronik Media, the London based web design company are known for the value of their web development services for businesses. ...


Leading Web Development Firm Rockfish Interactive Selects Internap ...
FOXBusiness - May 6, 2008
"Rockfish Interactive's impressive customer base reflects the firm's great achievements in the Web-development space," said Tim Sullivan, chief technology ...


Arrival of technologically advanced web development company ‘Spinx'
PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung), Austria - May 5, 2008
2008-05-05 09:28:57 - Based in Los Angeles, Spinx provides professional website design and web development services to clients in the LA area, Orange County ...


New tool could make web development simpler
BizReport - May 5, 2008
If you've checked in with other web development companies, you know this is quite a bit quicker than other options. Here is how it works: developers begin ...


CodeGear offers drag-and-drop web development
ZDNet UK, UK - Apr 15, 2008
... PHP debugging options sit alongside error insight and source-code formatting features to reduce the potential for bug creation in web development. ...


Intuit Web development software launches in beta
Bizjournals.com, NC - Apr 17, 2008
Mountain View-based Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) said QuickBase is designed to let developers and independent software vendors "easily design, deploy and market ...


Google debuts new Reader for iPhone
BetaNews - 2 hours ago
While the application allowed for the use of most features of the Reader service, the simple nature of mobile Web development before the iPhone limited its ...


Web Development Firm
Black Hills Today, SD - May 1, 2008
The web developers at this South Dakota firm are on the cutting-edge of innovative web development strategy, they have created and launched successful ...


The Navigation Aspect of Web Development
Promotion World (press release), CA - Apr 24, 2008
Navigation thus, is an important aspect of web development. A well navigated website, makes surfing an enriching experience and also enables a proper ...


Microsoft Delivers Upgrades in .Net 3.5 SP1 Beta
eWeek,  NY - 3 hours ago
... richer JavaScript features, improved Web development and site deployment, and performance improvements for the IDE (integrated development environment). ...

Web-Development - Google News

home | site map
© 2006 Webhosting-Service.com - All Rights reserved. - GetWeb Media Webdesign Muenchen