What to do at this stage?
Graphically customize your platform
Structure information with tags and tabs
Customize your interface
A platform that is attractive, attractive and in line with your objectives will already have a better chance of success. On Elium, you can modify the thumbnails of your spaces, the space banners as well as the color and logo of your platform (only enterprise plan).
A few tips, though:
Be sure to choose a style that matches the vision of your project. For example, if the objective is for Elium to be the official knowledge base of your company and not to be confused with the social network in place, an informal, fun, colourful style may not be the best choice.
Each space administrator can change the colors of his space, so make sure that the overall style of the platform is consistent so that the home page remains pretty and welcoming.
Remember to check the style of your platform on the mobile application to make sure that your images, your choices are as beautiful on the move as on your computer.
Define your tags
When Elium replaces file sharing systems, one of the most difficult changes for the project manager is to move from a hierarchical classification scheme to a dynamic categorization by tag.
💡 Note
A classification plan is a tree structure, composed of many hierarchical levels. Its followers advocate a navigation that takes the user by the hand and leads him (in the best of cases) from click to click to what he is looking for (or not). Little evolutionary, necessarily subjective, the verticality of the classification scheme negates any transversal approach. Moreover, it is not always easy for a user to know where to classify content, forcing him either to split the file to classify it in several places, or to save it in an inappropriate folder, the content being then irretrievably lost...
The contribution of tag categorization
Tag classification proposes to affix metadata to the content which, selected alone or in combination, create a custom classification heading on the fly (i. e. after the fact) and present the corresponding content. What is determined and defined is not the structure (the plan) but the criteria (tag categories) according to which the user is likely to search for the information.
Tag categorization is flexible and scalable. In particular, Elium makes it possible to define the mandatory or optional nature of categories, the types of content and/or the spaces in which they are relevant and whether they are open to collective enrichment or restricted to a list of standardized tags. At the level of the tags themselves, Elium offers the administrator a simple interface to keep control of the proliferation of vocabulary.
💡 Note
It is the combination of these expertly defined tags with indexing and full-text search that is truly powerful. This deep indexing of all content (including saved files and web pages) also makes the tagging process easier. The tag is complementary to indexing, it provides a value that only a human being who has read, understood the content and interest it presents in the context of his organization, is able to deliver.
How to understand the tagging system?
In everyday life, everyone already uses this system without knowing it. On the Booking.com site, for example, the filtering categories proposed to select a hotel are actually composed of tags. This is also the case on Sephora, Amazon or online shopping sites.
Our mental process forces us to start with the category that has the most vital search criteria for us. For example, I'm looking for a hotel in the centre of Barcelona, I open the criterion (category) of the location. Then, I tick other criteria that refine my choice (price, types of services, facilities, etc.). This is exactly what you need to build in Elium to provide dynamic gateways to information.
How to define your tagging system in Elium?
In Elium, the tagging system consists of tags that are grouped into families, called categories. It is essential to start with the main criteria for classifying the information you want, namely the categories. A few steps to follow to define your categories:
There is certainly already a taxonomy in your company. Either the division of folders/sub-folders in your shared disk can already serve as a first draft, or your intranet or website has been built according to your services, business lines, key themes and can be a good basis for inspiration. Review these lists of terms flat to get a starting point for the first categories.
Secondly, it is not at all to propose the official taxonomy, it is useful to make this first list undergo a small test of reality in the field. Conduct some interviews with key users on your users' most important criteria for searching for information? How are they currently looking for? What do they want to find first? This can also be done via an online survey for ease of use. Group the main topics obtained in order to define your first categories. For example: Country, Language, Services, Themes, Type of documents, products, strategic topics, projects, etc.
Once your first list of categories has been established, you can perform a validation round: will the end user understand these categories/tags (the chosen term)? Will this help them filter for everyone or would it be too specific to a given space/theme? Once these large families are formed, they will have to be filled with tags.
A few tips.
Since Elium's structure is more flexible and shallower, generally speaking, the first level of folders in your tree structure will correspond to groups of spaces (only company plan). Then, the second level could determine the spaces. This gives a first outline of the possible structure of the information. The last folder levels are often abandoned in more dynamic trees, it is advisable to gather and cluster information at the expense of too deep a classification.
On average, our customers choose about 10 to 15 categories maximum with about 20-40 tags per category for a platform of +/- 500 users.
There is no notion of "sub-tags", prefer the combination of tags to offer all the possibilities
Define your tabs
The tabs are the third navigation layer available in Elium. They are configured at the level of the spaces on the platform.