The point of a category tree is to facilitate a very limited search based on an initial assumption or mental model. But you have to agree with that breakdown, and the manufacturer has to have the exact same definition, or you're actually driving the user away.
Category have the *illusion* of usefulness when dealing with large sets. Imagine a Venn diagram with multiple fuzzy-bordered bubbles - which is what the real world is like. If an item is even 1% outside a bubble it won't show up in a category. Yet the user is forced to make an arbitrary distinction - is it a comedy or a drama or a family movie or a children's movie or an animated movie (all could apply to Finding Nemo). You pick the one that you think is most likely and hope that you're right. And if you're not? SOL. But if there's no categories? You skip the whole farce and go right for your OWN logic. Telling the manufacturers that there are no categories will at least make them put the categories in the keywords, so folk are no worse off, or, in my hope, they'll look at other likely ways a customer might find an item and put in more. Categories are fine for computer components. It stinks for books, movies, clothes, people, or anything else that doesn't have only one possible interpretation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=38306 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
