Taxonomies and metadata are used to categorize and structure information in digital environments to help users find content. Taxonomies are an important part of information architecture and user experience design. The task of creating and maintaining taxonomies sometimes falls to UX writers and content designers so it’s good to know what they’re all about.
Let’s get a few definitions out of the way:
A taxonomy organizes and structures information, there are generally relationships between the terms of a taxonomy.
A controlled vocabulary is a type of taxonomy. It’s a controlled list of words or terms for a specific purpose like organising a digital library of content. Controlled vocabularies are used to ensure accuracy and consistency in the application of terms to create a frictionless user experience.
Metadata are pieces of information that describe aspects of a digital asset so that asset can be found.
Amazon’s browse tree is a taxonomy that helps customers intuitively navigate the Amazon website for successful online product discovery:
Amazon’s intuitive icons and labels help users to shop by category of book:
Controlled vocabularies can be used to manage image, video or audio libraries. For example Getty Images keywords help customers find visual content:
Metadata might sound like something complicated or mysterious but it’s not. The good news for UX writers is metadata is all about language. Metadata describes a digital asset so that asset can be found and used. For example, song and album titles, as well as writing credits on Spotify are all examples of metadata:
Another simple everyday example of metadata are hashtags. Whenever you add a hashtag to a Tweet or an Instagram post, you’re using metadata to help other users find your content.
#cute, huh?
Photo by Fredrik Öhlander from Unsplash
If you download this image of a dog from Unsplash to your device, it might be hard for you to find it in a couple of weeks unless you remember the exact location where you saved it. The file will likely have some basic data attached to it like a meaningless filename, the image’s dimensions, and the dat
