Boxes And Arrows : The Design Behind the Design

Hi there,

we’re working on a commercial product categorization for a business to business website where manufacturers can present their products. The scope of the categorization ranges from consumer products like t-shirts to business products like manufacturing equipment. From averything to zomething, so to speak ;-)

We analyzed a bunch of category systems of few major websites and some standardized categorization systems like the UNSPSC.

Conculsions:

1. All websites categorize same things differently.
2. eBay for instance, is categorizing same things differently in different countries.
3. Standardized categorization systems like the UNSPSC are to dry and to complex and partially to detailes to use the on this kind of website.

Questions/Problems:

How to deal with category boundaries?

We were trying to divide the categories into consumer and business/industry. While it’s clear, that manufacturing equipment goes into business/industry, we’re struggling when things become blurry. Computers for instance. Are computers consumer or business/industrial equipment? Or let’s say we have a categories like Office and Furniture. Should office furniture go into the Office or Furniture category? Should a Computer Desktop/Laptop be in the Office or the Computer Category?

I’m afraid there is no correct answer here, so I was wondering how you guys deal with this kind of issues and what the best practices here are? Is there a literature that can enlight me in this matter?

Thanks,

Thomas