Our Audience ≠ Us
As a software engineer, something as milquetoast as data taxonomy actually sounds quite thrilling to me. I love all the different ways data and information can go together, and it's incredibly fascinating to study new ways to present said info. In the computer science world, this is not an uncommon take. Unfortunately (or fortunately), not everyone who uses a website involving a data interface is in love with coding and data science. There is immense research into creating better data structures and databases, but not nearly enough time is spent understanding the best way to present this information to a layperson. This is exactly the issue B. Shneiderman tries to tackle in their paper "The eyes have it: a task by data type taxonomy for information visualizations," where they break down many different ways to present various types of data structures. I would highly recommend checking it out at some point -- it's a fascinating read!
A Turning Point
What stood out to me the most in said paper was its discussion on boolean logic versus the English langauge, which I feel is emblematic of the current problem in the computer science world for user interfaces. Shneiderman explains how the way we use and/or logic in our data queries and code is the exact opposite to how we use it in the real world. In the computer science world and set theory, AND is used to narrow down a search, while OR expands it, whereas if I were to say in a plain English conversation that I was looking for places to eat in Lincoln and Omaha, people would know exactly what I meant. When we test different ways to query that use more clear language for narrowing it down, almost everyone who uses said systems prefers it to the boolean logic alternative says Shneiderman. This was a major turning point for me in terms of what I prioritize in my interfaces. We need to code with empathy and understanding, putting ourselves in our audience's shoes. If we code for ourselves, we will end up with a product that we enjoy -- likely very few others will feel the same.
Credit
B. Shneiderman, "The eyes have it: a task by data type taxonomy for information visualizations," Proceedings 1996 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages, Boulder, CO, USA, 1996, pp. 336-343, doi: 10.1109/VL.1996.545307.