Express Yourself: Taxonomies of Descriptive Tags

One of my favorite types of taxonomy projects involves expressive, descriptive tags. Genre, mood, style and aesthetic concepts can be applied to content of all types to facilitate retrieval and especially, to evoke a bit of the user’s personality.

You can read this article in The New York Times about the brilliant work Netflix is doing using a bunch of smart adjectives to inspire engagement. Words like Witty, Quirky and Goofy are used to describe the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, while Breaking Bad is more Violent, Gritty and Dark.

Spotify is using similarly vibey words in fun combinations to create an addictive daily experience personalized for every mood with daylist. For instance, I am apparently having a “bachelorette party late 90s tuesday morning,” which is surprising considering the number of bachelorette parties I’ve attended (two, including one sophisticated brunch for my own).

Other site are using styles or moods to assist users with search. Apartment Therapy has a nice filtering menu of Home Styles including Eclectic, Colorful and Glam alongside more traditional design styles like Art Deco or Contemporary.

From a taxonomy perspective, there are some additional considerations when dealing with concepts that are meant to convey the aboutness of sometimes very subjective creative content.

1. Clear definitions: It is particularly important when dealing with concepts that are similar in meaning (quirky versus offbeat) to strive for clarity in definitions and guidelines, including providing examples of when to use one instead of the other.
2. Use related concepts: If you are using a taxonomy management tool or other system which allows for the use of skos:related and similar associative relationships, it is a good idea to formalize the connection between concepts.
3. Minimize end-user confusion: Similar to providing clear internal definitions for expressive tags, make sure that the user-facing implementation is clear. Enable easy filtering by concept for the collocation of similar stuff. Strive for seamlessness across all surfaces and avoid users having to say “huh?”

To summarize, there is great opportunity to create memorable experiences and increase engagement by employing taxonomies of descriptive concepts. Here are some additional resources to help you brainstorm:

• Aesthetics Wiki
• Wikipedia List of Art Movements
• Every Noise at Once
• List of Mood Words