IBM’s Navigation and Taxonomy

Context
I worked at the IBM Austin office as an Information Architect Intern, where I focused on addressing product naming inconsistencies. As the sole intern on the IBM.com team, I collaborated with UX Designers, UX Researchers, Information Architects, and Content Strategists on two major projects.

The first involved reconstructing the global navigation for the product dropdown menu and creating category pages. The second focused on product taxonomy, where I reconciled over 800 products across multiple IBM systems.

My Role
Information Architecture

Team
Individual

Tools
Figma, Miro, AEM

Timeline
May - Aug 2025

Although this work is under NDA, my contributions over the summer include:

  1. Pinpointing common problems within IBM’s product taxonomy and where the product naming disconnects

  2. Building and pushing out 3 new category pages for the design team to review

  3. Delivering a presentation during IBM’s monthly design showcase to 50+ individuals to raise awareness of current problems and proposed solutions

REFLECTION

Be Proactive

As an intern, it can be intimidating to navigate a company this large alone. My project manager is always in meetings, and I often find myself with nothing to do, especially during the early onboarding stages. I took the initiative to schedule one-on-ones with other associates and senior leaders to put myself to use. I was able to shadow the UX researchers on their ongoing project, conduct a competitive analysis, and audit the site for broken links and redirects.

Not Knowing is a Step Towards Understanding

In team meetings, I often find myself asking, ‘What does XYZ mean?’ or ‘How do X and Y work together to produce Z?’ I would write down my questions and ask my manager during a one-on-one, but that’s when I realized that even she doesn’t know everything. Putting my insecurities aside, I gathered the courage to ask for clarifications during our weekly stand-up calls because, in the end, everyone is learning.

If you have any questions or would like to know more about my summer at IBM, email me at jc.chenjesse@gmail.com!