Insights

Perspectives, methods, case studies, and interviews about information architecture and content operations for the modern web.

GraphCon 2026 Themes & Takeaways

A view of a presenter and her title slide from six rows back in an office space turned small conference venue.

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the first GraphCon Seattle event. This inaugural practitioners conference, planned and produced by the Graph Geeks community, focused on how folks are solving real world problems in practical ways, using a range of technologies and approaches. Though a one day event, it was packed with thought-provoking perspectives and rich with opportunities to talk with other graph enthusiasts exploring and trying out new ideas with graph approaches to information and knowledge management.

Content Review & Approval Workflow Integration

A right to left decision flow diagram showing states for internal review, client review, and revisions, as well as decision points for different revision types.

I helped micro-learning startup Elemeno Health standardize, streamline, and integrate their content review and approval workflow across three management, production, and monitoring platforms to eliminate manual synchronization, reduce process variability, and increase workflow state visibility. Now, both content producers and healthcare clients have clear insight into production status, can provide structured, actionable feedback, and have access to auditable records of approvals for point-of-care clinical resources.

Content Operations Strategy and Design

Road curving through a forest of tall trees in a dark forest with a beam of light shining down

In the last several years, we’ve witnessed seismic shifts in how content is created, communicated, and consumed. To communicate effectively online, we now need models that transcend the page and treat content as a living asset, ready to flow wherever it creates value. While Information architecture remains essential, the holistic operationalization of how content is planned, created, published, and managed is now more crucial than ever. This is why I’m narrowing the scope of my practice to “content operations engineering and design,” with a focus on work with the Sanity platform.

Sanity Studio Taxonomy Migration

A single taxonomy structure shown on two screens, the first in a spreadsheet, and the second in a custom taxonomy management tool in Sanity Studio..

Developing a taxonomy to meet the business needs of your content collection is a crucial step toward regaining control of your content ecosystem. Too often, however, well-intentioned taxonomy solutions never fully make it to the systems they're meant to serve. Don't let this be your fate! Here's the process I use to migrate taxonomy drafts in a spreadsheet to the taxonomy management tool in Sanity CMS.

Purpose-Driven Taxonomy Design

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A purpose-driven taxonomy is designed to meet a clearly defined set of goals and use cases. This sounds obvious, but it's a step many organizations gloss over—often with frustratingly mixed outcomes as a result. In this article, I'll discuss a process I use for selecting terms, creating structure, and vetting design approaches on both small and large scale taxonomy projects. I'll also offer advice on where LLMs do—and don't—fit into a purpose-driven taxonomy design workflow.

AI Supported Taxonomy Term Generation

Diamond patterned wire fence with small circular metal tags printed with names hanging from each vertice

Underneath the hype and hyperbole of "AI" capabilities, there's a compelling use case for responsibly using LLMs to help information architecture practitioners make better use of time-tested analysis and classification approaches and tools. Here is an example of one way that LLMs and rules-based text analysis techniques can be coordinated to generate tags for a topic taxonomy that has fallen out of sync with its content set.

Taxonomy Boot Camp 2024 Themes & Takeaways

Image of the DC metro map, centered on Federal Triangle and the National Mall

Two weeks ago it was again my pleasure and privilege to attend Taxonomy Boot Camp (TBC) in Washington, DC. This was TBC's 20th year, and, in the four times I've attended since 2016, was the strongest argument yet for the enduring importance of well-designed and integrated taxonomies. In addition to tracks for "taxonomy fundamentals," this year's event featured tracks for "taxonomy applications," "taxonomy operations," and "advanced data and semantic layers." This is my roundup of the themes and insights that stood out to me most.