Does Israeli Vegetable Salad Have a Place in Knowledge Management?
- Naama Berkovitz
- Jul 1, 2006
- 4 min read
"A person without imagination has no wings," said Muhammad Ali. Nevertheless, many still struggle to understand knowledge management concepts or solutions, particularly if they've never encountered them.
One of the main ways to make solutions more accessible to the target audience is through the thoughtful use of metaphors. The purpose of a metaphor is to take a content world that is familiar and known to the broader audience or even to a narrower target group and use it by comparing it to another world—in our case, the world of knowledge management.
The metaphor not only places the listener on "safe ground," a content world where they feel in control but also allows them to actively develop the idea by adding their meanings and subtext. Below are several metaphors that we found particularly recommended for illustrating knowledge management concepts or solutions:
Israeli Vegetable Salad
A metaphor that helps identify user needs. We ask users to tell us what the perfect Israeli vegetable salad means to them. On the surface, we all know what an Israeli vegetable salad is, but experience shows that everyone likes it a bit differently. One might want mint in their salad, another cherry tomatoes, and for a third, a salad without onions isn't worth the trouble. The metaphor of an empty salad bowl into which users choose to put different vegetables parallels a knowledge management solution that initially serves as an empty framework that users help us fill with the content they desire.
The metaphor helps users recognize that each has different needs, which can be combined into a salad. The metaphor also helps explain the existence of common items that constitute the main work content (since almost every vegetable salad will contain basic items like tomato and cucumber), the Killer Application (the vegetable without which the salad would not be as attractive to the user). This metaphor can also be used to explain the continuation of the work process: the user chooses the vegetables they want (the content they want to see), and now the content expert will be responsible for processing them in a way that is "easy to digest" for the user (chopping, seasoning, etc.).
Library
A metaphor for content organization. The library includes different types of information (books, periodicals) belonging to different genres (mystery and adventure literature, historical novels, travel books) written by different authors (usually arranged alphabetically by author name). Every library typically has a bestseller shelf (usually found at the entrance), and even the arrangement on the shelves is different (books will be displayed next to each other regardless of publication year, while in periodicals, the latest and most up-to-date journal will be displayed). This world usually allows for an intelligent discussion on how to present content to make it accessible and convenient for the user.
Shopping Mall
A metaphor for a portal knowledge management solution.
Structure - The mall is built in a way that allows easy and intuitive orientation, making it easy to find what you need and navigate easily the next time you're there while maximizing exposure to the stores in the mall. The portal, correspondingly, should allow simple, easy, and intuitive orientation while maximizing exposure to its content. In the mall, there is clear signage that facilitates orientation, both in terms of the location of stores and the various aids available in the mall (restrooms, smoking areas, etc.). At the same time, the portal has a navigational framework that includes the content tree and hot buttons.
Content - The mall includes a mix of different stores (clothing, footwear, food, and leisure) parallel to the different content worlds in the portal. In the mall, the store's name and the display window usually indicate the store's content; similarly, in the portal, the name of the content item and/or the specific branch in which it sits indicates its content. Mall management checks the audience's taste to give them a precise response through surveys, analysis of sales reports, counting the number of visitors to the mall sites, etc. In the portal, it is also important to check the extent of site usage through user reports, the extent of use of specific items, satisfaction surveys, etc.
Killer Application - In the mall, there are anchor stores: pharmacies, clothing stores, large chains, and food chains, which serve as crowd pullers. In the portal, correspondingly, there are information anchors such as forms, useful phone numbers, organizational structure, information about the company, etc., alongside crowd pullers like personal additions, unique links, etc.
User permissions - In the mall, a security guard filters the entrance for authorized persons only, and in the portal, there is an authorization for a username that allows the surfer to be exposed only to the content to which they are authorized.
Knowledge items - In the mall, large and attractive stores will be displayed in a central and prominent place, and in the portal, important and central items will be promoted to "hot buttons."
Dynamism - The mall manager and staff need to keep the mall alive and adapt to the changing taste of the audience, as well as offer attractions that draw crowds (clearance sales, various activities, etc.). Similarly, the site manager and content experts must maintain a relevant level of content that meets the needs of users and offer crowd-drawing attractions (publicity of a well-known person, interactive applications, etc.).
Push & Pull: Push - In the mall, we see the display window, signs about sales, advertisements on radio/television, the announcer in the mall, and sales promotion booths existing in the mall, while in the portal, there are news flashes, banners, hot items, what's new on the site, promotion on the home page.
And Pull - In the mall, this refers to a customer coming to purchase a specific product in a store. In contrast, the portal refers to a user looking for a specific information item using the content tree/search engine.
Remember: The world of metaphors is rich and limited only by your imagination and that of the user group.
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