Session type: Main Conference Talk

Taxonomies are almost always built for specific domains. Can a taxonomy built for a particular market in one language be transposed onto another and retain its value? This presentation will consider the intricacies of translating an occupational taxonomy into different markets and different languages. Is the Spanish job title chofer the same thing as the English driver? How do we handle the fact that an American registrar is an administrative role while an Australian registrar is a trainee doctor? In this presentation we will give insights into how to deal with intercultural connotations and the cultural differences among and between languages. How do you create gateways in a global taxonomy that are useful for numerous markets and languages, while keeping it sustainable in the future? What about "global" concepts such as marketing or information architecture? What does the use of these English terms in non-English markets tell us? Attendees will receive an overview of how to take the abstract concept of translation and meaning-making and apply it to specific use cases, in this case occupations at Indeed. More specifically, this presentation will discuss the nuances of cultural underpinnings for taxonomy creation and explore the tensions between global strategy and local implementations.

There is a lot to think about when redesigning any application, but what if your application was a 30-year-old project to transcribe over a hundred years worth of art sales receipts? What if you want to connect these receipts to the people, places, and objects they describe? How do you present this messy event-based data that has gaps and overlaps in time? What if your users have been using this application for decades? Won’t someone think of the users?! This is the task the Getty is currently undertaking with their remodel of the Getty Provenance Index, bringing together 6 databases and 1.7 million records from auction catalogs and art dealer inventories into a single, modern interface using linked data. UX designer Kristen Carter is going boldly forward where not many have gone before: designing a usable interface for a network of information about art, people, documents, and events. Turning a massive, tangled, network graph into a familiar and friendly UI was no easy task. But over the course of 3 years of sifting through user research, trial and error, and a gross amount of coffee, the answer slowly presented itself: the compromise between data that wants to be Facebook and users who want a card catalog. In this session you will learn:

• How to design a UI for event-based data when everything is an event
• What works and what doesn’t when displaying user-friendly Linked Open Data
• Tools and methodologies for designing a UI when you can’t crib off other people

There is a large and messy challenge that comes with needing to share different types of information with different audiences in a single space, especially when one of those audiences is underserved. There have been countless (and important) efforts to create accessible content on the web in regards to differently-abled folx, but the conversation about creating accessible content for the LGBTQ+ populations is just beginning. Using The National Center for Transgender Equality as an example, we will walk through how language and hierarchy can make a site more accessible to different audiences with varying levels of understanding and sensitivity.