Advice on Best Practice Knowledge Base and Help Center Taxonomy Titling

nimita
Tera Contributor

I am currently working on updating my company's Knowledge Base and Help Center taxonomy. With the project, we are aiming to move away from the traditional IT and HR categorization with an aim to make the experience as intuitive as possible for all users. With that being said, I am looking for advice regarding the best practices for both L1 and L2 categorization titling. To provide a few examples, our current L2 includes categories labelled Applications and Devices, Benefits and Pay, Account and Access, My Career, Employee Management, etc. Please provide your feedback and insights regarding this topic, as well as the category labels I have provided focusing on best practice labelling. 

1 REPLY 1

AJ Siegel
ServiceNow Employee
ServiceNow Employee

Hello @nimita 

 

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for every customer. Each organization has its unique culture, language, and mental models for how users associate their needs with taxonomy titles. With Employee Center, the new out-of-the-box taxonomy (which you can view on Now Create) is based on extensive research by our own UX Research & Insights team across multiple customers and industries. 

 

It is a well-researched recommendation, but still may not be right for your organization.

 

Since you have a taxonomy in place today, you may want to get feedback on the current taxonomy to inform any decisions you might make. A tree test or usability study can provide great insights into your decision-making. I'd consider conducting either with both recent hires and experienced colleagues to make sure the taxonomy works for both.

 

Another approach is to use card sorting to see how your users would organize the content themselves, given an unstructured pile of content (catalog items and KB articles). if you conduct an "open card sort" you can even see what they would label the groups. 

 

In general, though, using plain language, avoiding acronyms and jargon, and not letting org charts or politics drive the taxonomy will result in better information scent for your users. Our UX Leading Practices course on Now Learning will have additional insights that may help.

 

Best of luck.