Perception of Tag Clouds
Tag clouds have been subject of investigation in several usability studies. The following summary is based on an overview of research results given by Lohmann et al.:
- Tag size: Large tags attract more user attention than small tags (effect influenced by further properties, e.g., number of characters, position, neighboring tags).
- Scanning: Users scan rather than read tag clouds.
- Centering: Tags in the middle of the cloud attract more user attention than tags near the borders (effect influenced by layout).
- Position: The upper left quadrant receives more user attention than the others (Western reading habits).
- Exploration: Tag clouds provide suboptimal support when searching for specific tags (if these do not have a very large font size).
Read more about this topic: Tag Cloud
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“The most evident difference between man and animals is this: the beast, in as much as it is largely motivated by the senses and with little perception of the past or future, lives only for the present. But man, because he is endowed with reason by which he is able to perceive relationships, sees the causes of things, understands the reciprocal nature of cause and effect, makes analogies, easily surveys the whole course of his life, and makes the necessary preparations for its conduct.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I believe in the flesh and the appetites,
Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me
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Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touch’d from,
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—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)