The document discusses how organizations can improve their intranet search and taxonomies. It emphasizes the importance of proper tagging, content auditing, and user research to ensure information is discoverable. It also stresses ongoing communication and engagement with colleagues to understand search needs and identify issues. Well-structured taxonomies and high-quality content can help people find information more quickly within an organization's intranet.

1. FIND STUFF QUICKER
MAKE YOUR SEARCH & TAXONOMIES WORK FOR
YOU
INTRANET NOW, 4 OCT 2017
HELEN LIPPELL @OCTODUDE

2. DEFINITIONS
•Taxonomy:
• Labels and relationships to describe and organise
• Site navigation; tagging documents and content to help search
• Not the same as taxidermy!
•Search:
• Refers to in-house tools in digital workplaces, apps
• Not the same as Google!
HELEN LIPPELL @OCTODUDE

3. IS EVERYONE HAPPY WITH THEIR INTRANET
SEARCH?
HELEN LIPPELL @OCTODUDE

4. WHY DOES THIS MATTER…
•If people can’t find and use corporate
content:
• It wastes their time
• It wastes their energy
• It wastes the knowledge and insight of their
colleagues
•Unlike the web, we can’t just try another
site
HELEN LIPPELL @OCTODUDE

5. TAXONOMY AND TAGGING
•Why tag:
• Signals for search
• Related content
• Relevant content
•Why bother with a proper information
architecture
• Sense-making
• Discoverability
•Synonyms, abbreviations, jargonHELEN LIPPELL @OCTODUDE

6. CONTENT
•Impact of bad content:
• Misleading
• May affect customer-facing interactions
• And more!
•Content auditing
• Little and often
• All content types
•Content clean-upsHELEN LIPPELL @OCTODUDE

7. SEARCH
• Search is not as clever as an AI movie
• User tasks and needs
• Topicality
• Same word, different meanings
• Different words, same meanings
• The greatest gift you can give to search is attention
HELEN LIPPELL @OCTODUDE

8. RESOURCING AND ENGAGEMENT
•Shout about success
•Shout about the stuff that isn’t working
•Communicate with and listen to your
colleagues
•Chat over coffee, run small workshops
HELEN LIPPELL @OCTODUDE

9. HELEN LIPPELL @OCTODUDE
• http://www.taxonomybootcamp.com/Londo
n/2017/
• @TBC_London
• helenlippell@gmail.com