Project - Enterprise e-Commerce Product Ontology

An image of a card, with a banner on top that reads 'What Was There.' In the card, below the banner, there is a header that reads 'Legacy e-Commerce Taxonomy System.' There is a diagram of a database and a one-directional arrow toward a diagram of a hierarchy. Below that it says, 'A singular taxonomy, sourced from SQL tables, hard-coded to the website.' In bold it reads 'One-way and inflexible.' Below that is some bullet point text: 'single taxonomy model serving multiple use cases (search, navigation, product classification, merchandizing campaigns)' 'incredibly rigid (terms cannot be changed or deleted, terms cannot redirect, attributes could not be changed or deleted, taxonomy hard-coded to website architecture)' 'did not support new features or initiatives (market localization, personalization)'

Project Overview: Designed a comprehensive product ontology for a large-scale e-commerce platform to enhance product discoverability, categorization, and personalization.

Role: Lead Information Architect

Problem: Legacy Taxonomy Based on SQL Tables. The legacy taxonomy did not easily allow for changes, deletes, or redirects. In addition, it did not support modern accessibility, personalization or search optimization standards. This rigid, inflexible taxonomy was also serving multiple purposes: browse navigation, search, and product classification. These separate needs required to reference similar terms, but required different structures for each in order to work properly.

Solution: This series of use cases was perfect for a Semantic Ontology Management platform, based on OWL and RDF standards. This system would allow for a robust product ontology that maps to use-case specific taxonomies for Navigation and Search.

Outcomes: Delivered a scalable, maintainable product ontology and governance documentation for the product ontology and respective taxonomies.

An image of a card, with a banner on top that reads 'What I Built.' In the card, below the banner, there is a header that reads 'Standards-Based Semantic Management System.' There is a diagram of a product ontology feeding multiple taxonomies (site navigation, SEO and merchandizing campaign taxonomies) using one-directional arrows from the ontology toward the taxonomies. Below that it says, 'A product classification technology that serves as the authority for all other taxonomies.' In bold it reads 'Dynamic and modular.' Below that is some bullet point text: 'Ontology and taxonomies managed in a standards-based ontology management platform' 'Changes made in product ontology dynamically populate respective taxonomies' 'Modularity preserves catalog authority, while allowing information to be presented differently in varying contexts' 'URIs remove need for hard-coding pages and allow for redirection'

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