Summary: With case studies and personal process anecdotes, Jessica DuVerneay explains how taxonomy is a valuable tool that should be in every IA's toolkit.

Last year, I was asked to act as Global Producer for the first ever World Information Architecture Day 2012. While it was a great challenge, it was one of the best things I’ve been able to do to support the global IA community. This year, I was honored to be asked to contribute to the local community through speaking at WIAD 2013 in Ann Arbor.

Nervous, as this was my first conference presentation, I was able to wrangle my friend and colleague Marti Gukeisen (from Enlighten) to tag team a presentation entitled “A Beginners Guide to Taxonomy”. Fresh off of our first “real” taxonomy projects, we were able to take a subject commonly perceived as dry and make it engaging and entertaining.

Using case studies and personal process anecdotes, the practitioner focused message was simple: Taxonomy is an incredibly valuable tool that can be approached in a simultaneously methodical and user centered way, and should be in every IA’s toolkit. In our talk we outline an quick and dirty approach to taxonomy, explain it’s benefits and challenges, and encourage practitioners to jump in and give it a try themselves.

If you missed the event in Ann Arbor, or want to chime in on the awesomeness of taxonomy, please check out this video of the Taxonomy talk and let us know what you think!