Lesser technical term than hierarchy

Question

In my app, a customer/user is assigned a hierarchy (for example geo-hierarchy) for various purpose such as reports (e.g. if assigned at Dehli 'a state' then assumed segregation lower levels of hierarchy such as city ), authorization (authorized to transact for certain level of geographical location), responsibility, etc.

A node in hierarchy may have a parent (if not then it is a root node and there can be only one root node) and one or more childs. For example, if hierarchical structure is defined as Continent -> Country -> State -> City, then a country will have only one parent as continent, but many states as child.

I want user to be able to define the hierarchical structure to suit his business needs. As of now there are multiple kinds of hierarchy that user can define and use later such as Geographical, Sales, Product, etc.

My concern is that this all that 'Hierarchy' or 'Hierarchical Structure' seems too techincal a term for a user to understand, especially when

• when translated to another language,
• and when user himself has not defined them but has to select a value from it while doing a transaction.

How can I make it less techincal or more simpler for the user, especially for those who may not have any exposure to systems before? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

If there is a single root node, and each node can have one parent and n children then this is a tree structure. I think this term should be understood by those less technical.

Answer 2

First off, I would disagree that "hierarchy" is a too technical term. Anyone not understanding the word can look it up in a simple dictionary. The term is widely used in various contexts of non technical nature.

If you really need an alternative, I think so far Franchesca's answer is the best. Everyone knows what a tree is and understands the structure of a tree with a trunk, branches, twigs and leafs.

Depending on the context, here are some alternatives for the English language:

• Structure
• Organisation structure
• Network structure
• Order
• Ranking
• Pecking order
• Placing order
• Setup chain
• Topology

Mind that the cure may be worse than the disease. I can assume that when using a term such as "setup chain" you are in fact making things more complex. It somehow suggests to users than the concept is more, or somehow different than a simple hierarchy.