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Table of contents: flat versus deep hierarchy

Imagine you’re creating an employee manual for your so-untrendy-it’s-trendy coffeeshop. You start jotting down topics to cover.

You draft the manual. You lean back in your chair. You click the “Table of contents” button. Your word processing software spits out:

  1. Customer Service
    1. Greetings
      • Facial Expressions
        • For repeat customers
      • Standard Phrases to Use
    2. Receiving customer money
      • Standard Phrases to Use
    3. Dealing with Complaints
      • Complaints about Product
        • Price
        • Quality
      • Complaints about Service

This is called a “deep” structure because there are subdivisions within subdivisions.

A deep structure is not your only option. Although there are exceptions for some types of content, almost always, a flatter hierarchy is better. The internet has trained our brains to scan text, and deep hierarchy impedes that tendency to scan. People trying to glean information from a deep table of contents are either going to get frustrated or, more likely, just skip stuff.

You lean over the keyboard. What if you used employees’ tasks as the structuring principle of your manual?

Your manual could end up flatter, with only a few sub-points:

  1. Greeting customers
    • List of Standard greetings
    • Facial Expressions
  2. Follow-up questions to orders
  3. Brewing the coffee
  4. Pouring the coffee
  5. Entering the order into the register
  6. Delivering the coffee to the customer
  7. Processing payments
    • Cash
    • Credit
    • Gift Card
  8. Ending the transaction

The takeaways