On the beauty and usability of tag clouds

Christin Seifert; Barbara Kump; Wolfgang Kienreich; Gisela Granitzer; Michael Granitzer

doi:10.1109/IV.2008.89

On the beauty and usability of tag clouds

Christin Seifert, Barbara Kump, Wolfgang Kienreich, Gisela Granitzer, Michael Granitzer

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

94 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Tag clouds are text-based visual representations of a set of tags usually depicting tag importance by font size. Recent trends in social and collaborative software have greatly increased the popularity of this type of visualization. This paper proposes a family of novel algorithms for tag cloud layout and presents evaluation results obtained from an extensive user study and a technical evaluation. The algorithms address issues found in many common approaches, for example large whitespaces, overlapping tags and restriction to specific boundaries. The layouts computed by these algorithms are compact and clear, have small whitespaces and may feature arbitrary convex polygons as boundaries. The results of the user study and the technical evaluation enable designers to devise a combination of algorithm and parameters which produces satisfying tag cloud layouts for many application scenarios.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	2008 12th International Conference Information Visualisation
Subtitle of host publication	London, UK, 9-11 July 2008
Place of Publication	Piscataway, NJ
Publisher	IEEE
Pages	17-25
Number of pages	9
ISBN (Print)	978-0-7695-3268-4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/IV.2008.89
Publication status	Published - 9 Jul 2008
Externally published	Yes
Event	12th International Conference Information Visualisation, IV 2008 - London, United Kingdom Duration: 9 Jul 2008 → 11 Jul 2008 Conference number: 12

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Visualisation (IV)
Publisher	IEEE
Volume	2008
ISSN (Print)	1550-6037
ISSN (Electronic)	2375-0138

Conference

Conference	12th International Conference Information Visualisation, IV 2008
Abbreviated title	IV
Country/Territory	United Kingdom
City	London
Period	9/07/08 → 11/07/08

Access to Document

10.1109/IV.2008.89

Cite this

@inproceedings{8a3890c48a6f4273ba8cf4ef26e99760,

title = "On the beauty and usability of tag clouds",

abstract = "Tag clouds are text-based visual representations of a set of tags usually depicting tag importance by font size. Recent trends in social and collaborative software have greatly increased the popularity of this type of visualization. This paper proposes a family of novel algorithms for tag cloud layout and presents evaluation results obtained from an extensive user study and a technical evaluation. The algorithms address issues found in many common approaches, for example large whitespaces, overlapping tags and restriction to specific boundaries. The layouts computed by these algorithms are compact and clear, have small whitespaces and may feature arbitrary convex polygons as boundaries. The results of the user study and the technical evaluation enable designers to devise a combination of algorithm and parameters which produces satisfying tag cloud layouts for many application scenarios.",

author = "Christin Seifert and Barbara Kump and Wolfgang Kienreich and Gisela Granitzer and Michael Granitzer",

year = "2008",

month = jul,

day = "9",

doi = "10.1109/IV.2008.89",

language = "English",

isbn = "978-0-7695-3268-4",

series = "Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Visualisation (IV)",

publisher = "IEEE",

pages = "17--25",

booktitle = "2008 12th International Conference Information Visualisation",

note = "12th International Conference Information Visualisation, IV 2008, IV ; Conference date: 09-07-2008 Through 11-07-2008",

}

Seifert, C , Kump, B, Kienreich, W, Granitzer, G & Granitzer, M 2008, On the beauty and usability of tag clouds. in 2008 12th International Conference Information Visualisation: London, UK, 9-11 July 2008. Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Visualisation (IV), vol. 2008, IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, pp. 17-25, 12th International Conference Information Visualisation, IV 2008, London, United Kingdom, 9/07/08. https://doi.org/10.1109/IV.2008.89

On the beauty and usability of tag clouds. / Seifert, Christin ; Kump, Barbara; Kienreich, Wolfgang et al.

2008 12th International Conference Information Visualisation: London, UK, 9-11 July 2008. Piscataway, NJ : IEEE, 2008. p. 17-25 (Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Visualisation (IV); Vol. 2008).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - On the beauty and usability of tag clouds

AU - Seifert, Christin

AU - Kump, Barbara

AU - Kienreich, Wolfgang

AU - Granitzer, Gisela

AU - Granitzer, Michael

N1 - Conference code: 12

PY - 2008/7/9

Y1 - 2008/7/9

N2 - Tag clouds are text-based visual representations of a set of tags usually depicting tag importance by font size. Recent trends in social and collaborative software have greatly increased the popularity of this type of visualization. This paper proposes a family of novel algorithms for tag cloud layout and presents evaluation results obtained from an extensive user study and a technical evaluation. The algorithms address issues found in many common approaches, for example large whitespaces, overlapping tags and restriction to specific boundaries. The layouts computed by these algorithms are compact and clear, have small whitespaces and may feature arbitrary convex polygons as boundaries. The results of the user study and the technical evaluation enable designers to devise a combination of algorithm and parameters which produces satisfying tag cloud layouts for many application scenarios.

AB - Tag clouds are text-based visual representations of a set of tags usually depicting tag importance by font size. Recent trends in social and collaborative software have greatly increased the popularity of this type of visualization. This paper proposes a family of novel algorithms for tag cloud layout and presents evaluation results obtained from an extensive user study and a technical evaluation. The algorithms address issues found in many common approaches, for example large whitespaces, overlapping tags and restriction to specific boundaries. The layouts computed by these algorithms are compact and clear, have small whitespaces and may feature arbitrary convex polygons as boundaries. The results of the user study and the technical evaluation enable designers to devise a combination of algorithm and parameters which produces satisfying tag cloud layouts for many application scenarios.

U2 - 10.1109/IV.2008.89

DO - 10.1109/IV.2008.89

M3 - Conference contribution

SN - 978-0-7695-3268-4

T3 - Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Visualisation (IV)

SP - 17

EP - 25

BT - 2008 12th International Conference Information Visualisation

PB - IEEE

CY - Piscataway, NJ

T2 - 12th International Conference Information Visualisation, IV 2008

Y2 - 9 July 2008 through 11 July 2008

ER -

On the beauty and usability of tag clouds

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this