Past The Cloud And Into The Grid
Monday, June 30th, 2008I personally have always found tag clouds to be a mess. In fact, the seemingly random variation in font sizes to denote weight has made me avoid the tag cloud if possible. That is, until I stumbled upon a recent article by Anthony Zinni of Positive Space regarding a new technique which he dubs the “tag grid”.
You can view a live demo by visiting the Positive Space Blog and clicking on the link that says “Tag Grid” on the right menu under Visualize.
Unlike the tag cloud, the tag grid uses color-coded boxes, arranged by weight from highest to lowest. By using some basic concepts used in pattern recognition and applying it to the tag cloud, Anthony has pushed the tag cloud forward into something even more easily recognizable. I am sure this is just one among many other future attempts at pushing the borders of visualization even further. Have you made any such attempts yourself? If so, feel free to point the way!
