Page Types
a taxonomy system for Esri.com
Created an information architecture on Esri.com that improved site structure, URL consistency, analytics, and content strategy across 1000+ pages.
Created an information architecture on Esri.com that improved site structure, URL consistency, analytics, and content strategy across 1000+ pages.
Problem
Over three decades, maintaining such a large website has led to inconsistencies in how pages are categorized and how UX and UI strategies are applied. Esri.com hosts over 1,000 pages of marketing materials, resources, and e-commerce content designed to educate buyers about ArcGIS software and support them throughout their journey.
How it impacts the Company
URLs do not always accurately reflect what kind of page it is.
Example: Both of these pages are considered capability pages, but according to the url, it implies that one of these pages is a product page, but the other one is different. On the analytics side of things, how do we know these are the same type of pages?
In AEM this also means these are in two separate folders even though they are the same page types.
https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/3d-gis/overview
https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/data-management
Missing category folders
in AEM affected URL structure consistency across the site.
Incorrect categorization
of page types due to lack of documentation caused incorrect application of UX content strategies.
Inefficient workflows
caused by wasted time discussing which page should follow what strategy.
Inaccurate analytics
caused by mislabeling tags and incorrect groupings of pages.
What would this affect across Esri.com?
Previous map included both page type and customer journey. Provided a great starting point, but needed further work as it no longer reflected how the organization viewed these groupings of pages.
Conducted interviews of the following leads, whose teams would be directly affected by a new taxonomy system:
•Digital Experience Director
•Digital Experience Sr. Manager (Web strategy)
•Digital Experience Sr. Manager (Project Managment)
•Technology Marketing Manager ( Taxonomy and tagging specialist)
•UI Sr. Art Director, Manager and Team Leads
•UX Strategist, Manager
•Web CMS Team Lead ( AEM specialist)
•Conversion Rate Optimization Manager
Based off of notes, I created summaries of what use cases for each area were.
I Identified what was currently possible and prioritized shared goals.
•Label page types clearly.
•Label gateways (separate strategy from page typing).
•Create a clear legend for reading the map.
•Recategorize existing map based off of AEM restraints and Analytics needs.
•Meet with team weekly to reach agreement for each section.
MAKE AS MINIMUM CHANGES AS POSSIBLE TO CURRENT GROUPINGS TO AVOID UNNECESSARILY DIFFICULT IMPLEMENTATION.
Since the new page typing system was going to affect multiple teams (digital commerce, project managment, analytics, UX, UI, etc) It was important to create educational material teaching others how to read the new page type map, what the new definitions are, and why it was implemented.
The new page typing system has been in place for over 2 years and it has made a positive impact on our team in the following ways:
Improved content strategy:
Developed new content templates and revised existing templates to ensure consistency and quality across all page types.
Workflow Efficient Increased:
Improved how requests for new pages were created in Workfront. Helped identify page type strategies at an earlier stage, which streamlined decisions of content strategy during project kickoff meetings.
Improved Analytics:
Due to a more robust tagging and taxonomy system, our analytic reports became more accurate and useful during UX research projects.
email me at MANDI.EXCELL@GMAIL.COM if you have any questions. I’d love to hear from you!
☆ made with webflow ☆