[Sigia-l] Taxonomies & Navigation

[Prentiss Riddle]

Renata Zilse wrote:
> 
> Why should be navigation reflects the taxonomy?
> ... The user experience should not reflect the unit of
> information organizing system.

Doesn't it depend on which taxonomy we're talking about?

The classic principle is that the website should not
be structured like the org chart, because the user doesn't care
about the org chart.  The same thing is often be true of other
taxonomies (and hierarchies in general).

However, sometimes there are taxonomies that users do understand
and care about (which often interlock in faceted structures).  If
you can find them, you can leverage them for navigation.

The simplistic example is that one wouldn't want to organize a
gardening site in terms of botanical taxonomy, but it's perfectly
reasonable to use shallow "folk" taxonomies familiar to gardeners
(trees and shrubs, fruits and vegetables, annual and perennial
flowers, etc.).

At the same time, it's legitimate to unobtrusively provide access
via the org chart or the botanical taxonomy for the experts who
need it.

-- Prentiss Riddle ("aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada")
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