One of the first questions people ask at a party is, "What do you do?" I dread this question. Not because I don't want to talk about work, not because I hate my job, but because the answer, "I'm a taxonomist." usually results in a lot of blank looks. Sometimes I just tell people I am a librarian (which I am) but explaining why Sears.com needs a librarian is even more difficult.

About 6 years ago I was at a SXSW party, and was faced with just this question. I told them the boring truth--I worked on metadata quality & harvesting, but that my research area was taxonomy & classification of online data. After waking from her nap, she replied, "You know, no one knows what that is now, but in 5 years, everyone will want someone who knows how to do that well."

At the time, newly out of grad school and not relevantly employed, this statement made me angry. I think I told her, "That's great--what do I do until then?!" But in retrospect, it's the most prophetic statement I've ever experienced.

Often in information architecture, we complain about how no one takes us seriously; no one understands what we do. We fantasize about all the great work we'll be able to do only when everyone recognizes us for the geniuses we are. That's the wrong way to go about it. Keep kicking ass at a solution to the problem instead of shouting about how everyone should pay attention to the problem. Eventually people will realize there's a problem themselves and need you. And no one else has spent the last five years solving their problem.

People will never like the person who keeps pointing out the problem, but they won't complain about the person who just fixed the problem no one saw.

Labels: IA, jenny, kicking ass, metadata, professionalism, sxsw, Taxonomy, user experience, UX

I run a large UX org, we bring great value to our company, it can be seen everyday in our companies bottom line. You can see it in the improved conversion on the site, increase in registered customers and the CSAT numbers. Due to the fact that we continue to grow and at a very fast clip we are always in recruiting mode. It is one of the biggest challenges we face, how do we attract and retain the best talent, period.

As is often the case the most valuable assets are the ones you already have. You want to keep the team happy and motivated. By doing so they become one of your greatest recruiting tools. It's pretty simple and is focused around two areas of social communication.

The first is just their own network, great talent begets great work, great work begets great talent. Smart, creative and motivated people often know smart, creative and motivated people (simple math, i think, but then again, i'm not so good at math). We have a really strong team that knows their jobs will only become easier and more fulfilling if they get to work with people just like them. This motivates them to refer the best and the brightest (not to mention a healthy $2,500 referral bonus). I know the team leverages thier FB and LinkedIn networks because I often see posts in those spaces for our open req's.

The second is positioning our organization and company as thought leaders in the industry. Leveraging our social communication tools like this blog, like our twitter and FB pages. I have often said that I would put our team up against anyone out there and we would kick their butts. We really have a very strong team, UX, FED, Vis Design, Taxo, Copywriting, top notch. So besides me talking about them I need to get them talking about themselves and the awesome work they do here at Sears. I need them to be publishing in these forums and others representing UX Sears as a force to reckoned with.

I think this is so important that this is going to be one of our goals this year, each and every person in the department has to publish/comment/communicate about what they do here or just to share an opinion. This will help in recruiting almost as much as leveraging our own networks. The more people hear about the great things we get to do here at Sears the more likely they will consider us as a possible place to work.

Don't get me wrong, working at Sears is no bed of roses, we bust our butts day in and day out, we have short deadlines, we get random changes in direction, we sometimes lose a battle. But since I have been here we have been winning the war. I have full confidence that when the dust settles we will be on top looking out over the vanquished, proud of what we have accomplished. Okay, I'm getting a little over the top, but, I am motivated and excited and sometimes can't keep it in.

So, if we are going to succeed, we will need to work as a team and leverage our most valuable asset to consistently bring in the best and the brightest.

Labels: copywriting, front end development, recruiting, resources, Taxonomy, user experience, visual design

Taxonomy and its classified value

What is ‘taxonomy’ and what’s its value? In the simplest of definitions, taxonomy is the science and practice of classification. Everyone has used taxonomy at some point in their lives. They are all around you. They are in your grocery store, on your iPod, on your cell phone, in your computer, your kitchen, at your local library, and even in your government. They are everywhere. And everyone is a user.

Where are those taxonomies?

Your government is organized into a big taxonomy. Much like the Sears navigation there are different ‘verticals’ or top levels. There are the federal, state, regional, county and city levels of government. Everyone’s favorite government entity the Division of Motor Vehicles is a part of your state’s Department of Transportation. Each level of government has different responsibilities and provides specific products and services. Through use of government, and Mr. Crocker’s fourth grade civics lessons, we learn that our city government is responsible for the stop sign on the corner - not the federal government.

Your iPod is also full of taxonomy. In your classic iPod, you choose from Music, Videos, Photos, Podcasts or Extras. Once you choose Music, you can then navigate your way through Genres, Artists, Albums, Individual Songs or even Composers. Imagine 15,242 songs on an iPod and no way to find the one you want. A taxonomy system allows you to find and play the music you want.

E-Commerce Taxonomies

E-commerce is all about one thing – making money. Whether selling products or services, it’s all about selling something to someone. Sellers have lots of pieces of the puzzle that must fit together to attract and retain buyers to their stores. Through user testing, feedback, and other research methods, we’ve learned that our customers want a site that’s well organized and full of rich, relevant, usable content. Taxonomies are one of the corner pieces of the puzzle that is ecommerce.

A properly designed and implemented taxonomy provides an efficient, stable and scalable system for organizing products and services - and then describing them. E-commerce taxonomies reduce intricacy by representing products in a logical and culturally acceptable design. In other words, you wouldn’t expect to find side-by-side refrigerators under a heading of “Bed & Bath”.

An e-commerce display taxonomy is comprised of two primary units - hierarchy and attributes. Hierarchies are used to classify products and services, while the attributes are used to describe those products and services.

When you browse through a hierarchy of products, you’re browsing through a parent/child relationship. And with that comes a familiarity. If your goal is to find a refrigerator, while looking at the top level of terms in Sears.com’s hierarchy, the most reasonable expectation would be to find refrigerators under ‘Appliances’. Once you’ve found refrigerators, you can then choose from the remaining options to further narrow their choice until you come to class of products that you’re interested in.

Once you find the product you’re looking for, you’ll want lots of information on it. In today’s tight economy, purchasing decisions are made with forethought and certainty. You want to be confident in your decision. And the best way we can do that, is to give you all the relevant product info we can.

Using the example of refrigerators, let’s say there’s a plethora of specifications you’re interested in. You could be interested in the width, depth and height of the unit. Or maybe you want a stainless steel fridge. Or a white one. Or one with an ice maker. Or door shelves that can hold a gallon of milk. Some products can have 60 relevant attributes that will help you choose it from another. These are the marketing attributes used in a display taxonomy. With these attributes, we can supply you with everything you might need to know about a product and make that informed and confident buying decision.

On our site, you can interact with different tools and interfaces. Almost all of these are driven by a taxonomy and are dependent on the data that’s collected and stored on the site. Our Shoe Finder can’t help you, if the taxonomy doesn’t collect the size, color, or style of a shoe.

Even using a sites search capabilities, you’ll still interact with the browse hierarchy. A search term of “Battery” displays more than 2000 products in 11 different verticals on the Sears site. That’s when you can continue to narrow your selection by navigating through the display taxonomy.

Unless an e-commerce site only sells one item, no matter how you shop, you’ll interact with the taxonomy of the site. If you search for a product, you’ll still interact with either the hierarchy or the attributes. If you use a ‘Finder’ such as Shoe Finder or Battery Finder, you’ll use the attributes of the taxonomy. When you compare competing products such as a Kenmore Elite Dishwasher to the Kenmore Pro unit, you’re using attributes. Every user on a site will interact with the taxonomy some way, somehow.

Without taxonomy, there is no ecommerce.

Labels: Taxonomy