Taxonomy Improvements
From disjointed data to unified insights—transforming fragmented taxonomy into a seamless, actionable language for support teams.
Case Details
Project Overview
Problem Statement
Existing taxonomy tools were fragmented and outdated—resulting in data loss, poor collaboration, and inefficient workflows that hindered user decision-making and overall support effectiveness.
[Business Spend]
Technology
[My Role]
Lead Designer
[Platforms]
Desktop and Mobile
[Timeline]
[Business Impact]
End to End Design Process
Persona
Mark Jud
Taxonomy Manager
Age: 35
Location: Austin
Tech Proficiency: Advanced
Gender: Male
Role
Quickly classify, approve, and manage support cases.
Reviewing and updating taxonomy entries.
Ensure supplier compliance.
Frustrations
Incomplete Information.
Labor intensive manual process.
Slow decision making and increase in risk of errors.
Strategy and Approach
[01] User Research
Conducted internal interviews with 10 taxonomy agents at Google to understand their frustrations and preferences on how to set up a taxonomy.
Conducted comprehensive UX audits and user interviews to understand pain points, revealing issues like data fragmentation, excessive manual work, and broken handoffs.
[02] Early Ideation Workshops
Conducted workshops with Engineering, Product Managers and Executive Leadership.
Highlighted the need for a cohesive, user-friendly taxonomy tool that reduces manual effort and enhances system-wide communication
Influenced roadmap prioritization and UX contribution.
[03 Design Solution]
Unified Interface: A consistent, intuitive layout for browsing, editing, and managing taxonomy data.
Enhanced Visibility: Clear, structured information that reduces cognitive load.
Scalability & Flexibility: Modular design elements (inspired by tools like GitHub and Trello) that allow phased rollouts and future integration.
[04] Testing & Iteration
Launched a low-fidelity prototype to validate core user flows, followed by iterative usability testing and A/B comparisons.
Feedback was continuously integrated to refine the interface until key performance metrics—such as reduced processing time and improved user satisfaction—were achieved.
Design Stages
