Duane Degler presented on integrating taxonomies and ontologies into enterprise search and browse. He discussed how taxonomies can be leveraged to improve indexing and relevance, user interactions like filtering and related content, and applying taxonomies through layered subject tagging. Feedback loops were also important to continuously learn from user behavior and enable more proactive search. The talk focused on best practices for integrating structured classification schemes into enterprise search systems.

1. Duane Degler
duane@designforcontext.com
@ddegler
Integrating Taxonomies and Ontologies
into Enterprise Search and Browse
DHUG • February 6, 2018

2. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
● What is “Enterprise” (and Deep Content Site) search?
● Indexing and relevance
● User interactions
● Applying taxonomies (and light ontologies)
● Feedback loops
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3. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
u Attributes of the content
u Searching and browsing
u Leveraging taxonomy
“ENTERPRISE” (and “site”) SEARCH
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4. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
Users:
● Highly motivated
● Knowledgeable
● Longer search experiences
Content:
● Documents are larger
● Hard to know what is relevant
● More subjects covered
● Lots of repeated information
Content Attributes in Enterprise and Deep Content Sites
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5. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
Search & Browse Work Together
Even in search presentations,
there is an underlying structure
inherent in your content

6. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
Neighborhoods

7. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
Browse Pathways
Your taxonomy is
the road network

8. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
Leveraging Your Taxonomies’ Structure
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Search Engine
Receptor signaling
More than just
pouring a bucket of
words into your
search engine’s
indexer

9. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
u Hierarchical ranking
u Incorporating lightweight ontologies
u Semantic disambiguation
INDEXING AND RELEVANCE
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10. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
Cellular interactions
Cell adhesion
Cell communication
Cell signaling
Notch signaling
Receptor signaling
Signal transduction
Signaling pathways
WNT signaling pathways
Implicit (great grandparent)
Peer
Implicit (grandparent)
Implicit (parent)
Peer
Peer
Explicit tag
Implicit (child)
Implicit (grandchild)
Applying Taxonomy to Content Index
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INDEXING, RELEVANCE
1.0
0.7
0.5
0.2
0.3
0.5
Ancestors
Descendants
Related (RT)
?

11. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
Relationship Modeling
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INDEXING, RELEVANCE
LINKED THESAURI
Moving toward
Lightweight
Ontologies –
really useful!
Subjects
Product Types
Member Roles
Conditional boosting
“If the user is a Clinical Practitioner, boost these branches”

12. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
Semantic Disambiguation
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INDEXING, RELEVANCE
Subjects
Products
People

13. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
u Filtering
u Related content
USER INTERACTIONS
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14. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
User-facing
● Topical browsing
● Facet filtering, other page
content filtering
● Relationship links between
content items
● Personalization &
preference-setting
● General IA / site organization
Roles that Taxonomies Play
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USER INTERACTIONS
Internal engines
● Search indexing and relevance
ranking
● Algorithmic tuning for related
links & personalized content
● Automated & manual
classification
● Map to content-specific models
● Recommendations, alerts and
notifications

15. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
Navigating Taxonomy for Topic Filters
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USER INTERACTIONS
The Optical Society (OSA) Publishing: http://osapublishing.org

16. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
● Collection
● Keep within the same collection, if collections are subject-centered, not content
type-centered
● Time period
● As tight as possible to the asset being displayed
● Geography
● If one focused geographic area, retrieve items from the same area
● If more than one area, apply a broader geo-fence
● Type of content
● No more than 3-4 of the same type, so there are a good mix of types
● Subjects
● Focus on deepest (most specific) terms as a priority
● % of overlap —so 80% matching will be more related than 30% matching
● Where possible, tag subjects into multiple fields
● Outliers – more loosely related items
● Two items that are further away from the current item, to increase
unexpected discovery
Driving Related Content Algorithms
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USER INTERACTIONS
The Texas Coastal Bend Collection: http://texascoastalbend.org

17. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
User Mental Models
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USER INTERACTIONS
Collaborative
REFINE
Formulate Seek Evaluate Review
KEEP
REFINE
Formulate Seek Evaluate Review
Routine
Archival
Exploratory
Targeted
Survey
REFINE
Formulate Evaluate Review
USE/KEEP
Seek
REFINE
Formulate Seek Evaluate Review
KEEPUSE
REFINE
Formulate Seek Evaluate Review
USE/KEEP
REFINE
Formulate Seek Evaluate Review
KEEP
Duane Degler. Designing the Next Generation of Search User Experience. June 2015. http://www.designforcontext.com/insights/designing-next-generation-search-user-experience

18. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
u The right amount of secret sauce
u Layered subject tagging
u Subjects and Topics
u Context wrapping
APPLYING TAXONOMIES (and light ontologies)
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19. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG 19
APPLYING TAXONOMIES
Cellular structures
Cell membrane
Cell surface
Cell wall
Chromosomes
Chromatin
Karyotypes
Monosomal karyotype
Telomeres
All my content
is about this –
and I want it to
show up in
search!
The article is
really about
this…
Self renewal
Oh, and it mentions this briefly…

20. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
Layered Classification
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APPLYING TAXONOMIES
SubjectsAbout-ness
Depicts (primary)
Depicts (background)
Chromatin
Self renewal
Post-treatment effects

21. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
Subjects and Topics
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APPLYING TAXONOMIES
Topics
Topics
Sub-Topics
. . .
Subjects
Term
Term
. . .
Group of
Subjects
Subjects are about the
specific things in your
content
Topics provide entry to
your site’s overall focus

22. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
Subjects and Topics
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APPLYING TAXONOMIES
Topics
Topics
Sub-Topics
. . .
Subjects
Term
Term
. . .
Group of
Subjects
BONUS
This approach gives you algorithmic ranking from browse or
term-specific link lookup, because the ranking algorithm works
off of the relationships profile of the content!

23. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
Why
Subjects, goals
Where
Presented, approved,
deployed, cited
When
Created, presented,
published, changed
Who
Authors, reviewers,
consumers
Context Wrappers
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APPLYING TAXONOMIES
What

24. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
u Learning from selection and use
u Enabling proactive search
FEEDBACK LOOPS
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25. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
Capturing decisions/use (Governance)
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FEEDBACK LOOPS
Duane Degler. Understanding How Content Is Used in Enterprise Settings. March 2016. http://www.designforcontext.com/insights/understanding-content-use
Capturing user actions as system annotations
allows content, classification, and system
actions to coexist and be analyzed together

26. #DHUG2018 @ddegler Integrating Taxonomies/Ontologies into Enterprise Search/Browse | Access Innovations DHUG
Proactive Search requires Learning
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FEEDBACK LOOPS
Find
& Use
Support Ongoing
Quality & Effectiveness
Proactive & Targeted Technology Support
Apply refs
to work
products
Run &
refine
searches
Organize /
annotate
references
Relevance
pattern
learning
Query
building
support
Proactive
analysis
& retrieval
Save for
later use
Understand
& Prepare
Gather
candidate
terms
Formulate
search
strategy
Shared
resources
& models

27. Duane Degler
duane@designforcontext.com
@ddegler
Integrating Taxonomies and Ontologies
into Enterprise Search and Browse
DHUG • February 6, 2018