Q&A: Sourcing, maintaining, and scaling taxonomy in a multi-product company

A presentation at Writer.com presents: (Modern) Taxonomy for UX by Jonathon Colman

When we write for digital products—whether it’s interface or documentation—the words we choose have to remain intentional and consistent over time.

But it’s a near-impossible challenge when there are so many people across an org who write for the user journey.

Writer is bringing together an incredible line-up of content leaders for a half-day event about:

  1. How to build the FOUNDATIONS; and
  2. Scale the IMPACT

…of consistent language at your company.

Battles over ‘log in’ vs ‘sign in’ and feature names are just the start. Users abandoning your sign up flow midway or not finding what they need on a support site are taxonomy problems, too.

Writer is hosting tech industry leaders who have figured out how to stand up a taxonomy and terminology strategy that drives user engagement, company revenue, and internal productivity.

Participants include:

  • Jennifer Schmich: UX Writing Systems, Ontology Design at Spotify
  • Morgen Kimbrell: Content Design Group Manager at Intuit
  • Kristen Montgomery: Content Designer at Intuit
  • Sylvie Kim: UX Writer at Figma
  • Amy Connors: Content Design Lead at Okcoin
  • Richard McGowan: Content Specialist at ION
  • Rochelle Fisher: Director of Knowledge and Technical Writing at SentinelOne
  • Maria Romanovsky: Manager, Content Design at Workato
  • Jonathon Colman: Senior Design Manager and Practice Lead at HubSpot
  • Doris Jwo: Head of Product at Writer
  • Ryan Johnston: Head of Marketing at Writer
  • May Habib: CEO and Cofounder at Writer

The half-day workshop is free, and virtual. Join us on Nov 9.

Resources

The following resources were mentioned during the presentation or are useful additional information.

  • A template for terminology

    Get up and running quickly with terminology by using this template. It helps you scale the collection and documentation of your product terms across a team of any size.

  • Understanding IA by Dan Klyn

    Dan Klyn explains information architecture as the interplay of meaning, arrangement, and rules for interaction.

  • ActiveVoice: a community of content leaders by Writer

    Join Writer’s Slack community dedicated to top-tier content and made up of leaders in the space. We’re discussing best practices and toughest challenges, the future of writing, and the traditions that we love to build on.

  • (Modern) Taxonomy for UX

    Writer’s first community event focused on taxonomy and terminology for UX at scale.