情報が増えたときの整理を考える—シソーラス・タクソノミー・オントロジー
要点 呼び方の揺れにはシソーラス、置き場所の迷いにはタクソノミーが役立ちます 複数の情報がどう関係するかまで扱うなら、オントロジーを検討できます すべてを整えず、目の前の困りごとに合う方法から小さく始められます Slackで共有された仕様を探し、Notionの議事録とFigmaの画面を見比べ、GitHubのIssueで変更の経緯をたどる。情報は揃っているのに、呼び方や置き場所が違うだけで確認に時間がかかることがあります。そんな状況を整理する手がかりとして、シソーラス・タクソノミー・オントロジーという3つの考え方を眺めてみます。 情報の量だけでなく、整理の基準にも目を向ける 情報過多というと、保存する量を減らすことに目が向きがちです。ただ、同じものが違う名前で呼ばれ、保存場所が人によって変わり、情報同士の関係も見えにくいことが負担になっている場合があります。…
Sorting out the mess when information piles up: Introducing scholarly classification, taxonomic organization, and ontologies
When faced with an overwhelming number of information, three different approaches can help organize and clarify the chaos - scholarly classification (thesaurus), taxonomic organization, and ontologies. By understanding each method and its purpose, it becomes easier to navigate and manage the information at hand.
Scholarly classification, or thesaurus, focuses on organizing words based on their relationships. It involves creating representative words, as well as categorizing related terms, synonyms, and related concepts. For example, a team might standardize on one word for a UI element, such as "dialog" being the primary term and "modal" becoming a synonym.
This way, when searching for information across team documents, design systems, or searching internally, the correct term is readily available, reducing confusion and wasted time. Tag management, search assistance, and terminology unification are some of the benefits of using scholarly classification.
Taxonomic organization, or taxonomy, involves classifying information based on certain criteria, typically in a hierarchical structure. This method is useful when an overarching structure is needed to provide an overview of the information. For instance, in a design system, a hierarchy might include categories like "Foundations" (colors, spacing, text) and "Components" (inputs, navigation, feedback).
This establishes a clear path to follow when searching for information or organizing data. However, combining multiple axes into a single hierarchy can create confusion, so it is best to choose a primary classification axis and supplement others with tags. Taxonomy is particularly useful in large organizations where standardized categorization is necessary.
Ontologies take the concept of relationships a step further, creating a model that describes the meaning, types, properties, and relationships among various entities within a specific domain. By explicitly defining the relationships between concepts, an ontology enables easier navigation of complex relationships. For instance, a web page's structure can be defined using a schema.org ontology, with types such as "Person," "Event," and "Product" and relationships like "A screen provides functionality, uses components, depends on a function, and affects issues."
By organizing information this way, developers can easily determine which screens are impacted by API changes or which issues are related to specific functions. Although ontologies require more effort than thesaurus or taxonomy, they can be invaluable when analyzing complex relationships and dependencies.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
