Information Architecture Includes Search

Searching through Tags and Category Taxonomies in BuddyPress

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/31558461[/vimeo]
This is an illustration of the “Query Multiple Taxonomies” plugin in a WordPress/ BuddyPress site. Some JQuery has been added. Note that this video shows a work in progress that still presents multiple issue to be solved.

Knowledge About Plugins Influences Design

When constructing wireframes or creating a Photoshop mockup knowing what is feasible with existing plugins should help to focus the range of options to design. In the current NYCGA.net site, there are already many plugins installed which could result in conflicts with any new plugin added.

When resources are finite, it is important to:

  1. Consider which plugins may offer a reasonable solution to an already identified problem.
  2. Test the plugin on its own (on a different server) to understand its capabilities.
  3. Test the plugin for compatibility with other existing plugins on the production server.
  4. If the plugin passes through the steps above, then consider investing time on designing a user experience related to that plugin

Creating a Taxonomy using Pages in Internet Subdomain Blog Site

In the screen shot above we can see that a page has ben created for each of a number of Teams (or Subgroups) within the Internet Working Group. Each Subgroup can have its own separate pages for ideas and for actions. Here we see that “QR Code Info” is a child page of “Teams > Mobile > Ideas.” If we get buy in from people who want to try “QR Code Info,” then we can add that to the “Actions” child page.

Eventually, this would probably be done better with some custom code, or a specialized applications. However, WordPress enables us to easily create parent and child pages that show up in the menu automatically, with no coding.

Custom post types with their own custom fields can also be represented in a taxonomy within WordPress.