Traditionally, taxonomies are hierarchical. However, in many instances, hierarchal taxonomies may not be appropriate and a faceted structure may be more suitable.
Traditionally, taxonomies are hierarchical. However, in many instances, hierarchal taxonomies may not be appropriate and a faceted structure may be more suitable.
A taxonomy offers value as a controlled vocabulary of concepts to support consistent tagging and comprehensive, accurate retrieval of content and by providing an organized structure of these concepts to guide users to desired concepts. Facets define different aspects, types, issues, dimensions by which content may be classified and the taxonomy concepts (terms) can be organized into those facets. With a well-designed set of facets, the addition of hierarchy may not be required at all. For instance, a small term set can be browsed without a hierarchy to organize it. If a scroll box or a type-ahead or auto-complete search on the taxonomy terms is available, the hierarchy may not display or in some instances may not render well to the end-user. It is not possible to put most terms into a hierarchy. Besides, putting some terms into hierarchical relationships might result in a non-intuitive top-level display comprising both specific terms and categories of narrower terms at the same level. In sum, a faceted structure might be more relevant if user research indicates that users including taggers prefer type-ahead or auto-complete search on the taxonomy terms, rather than drilling down through hierarchies. It also holds true if most end-users want to get to the content as quickly as possible rather than spend time exploring a taxonomy. Click here to read the original article published by The Accidental Taxonomist.
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