Jason Bao on 2007-11-13
the more colors are used, the more irritating tag clouds are.
This link has been bookmarked by 121 people . It was first bookmarked on 06 Nov 2007, by Eric Holter.
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- Tags are sorted alphabetically. The most important or frequent terms are highlighted via an appropriate font size.
- Tags are sorted alphabetically. All terms have the same font size and weight. More important terms are highlighted with a font color or a background color.
- Tags are sorted according to their importance or frequency. Both font-size and colors can be used to emphasize the importance of terms.
- Tags aren’t sorted at all. Font-size, font-weight and colors in use.
- Tags are sorted according to their similarity. Similar terms appear as neighbours next to each other. A variety of visual formatting can be applied.
Types of Tag Clouds
There is a variety of ways to implement tag clouds. Some methods are more popular than the other ones. Most clouds are primarily sorted alphabetically.
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Right. Some designers create and label some site elements as tag clouds although they aren’t really tag clouds. Thus site owners try to highlight the main sections of the site manually. Colorful, but neither functional nor useful.
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ery specific and precise orientation of the site’s content
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it’s easier to get an idea of presented content
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although the technique is sometimes considered to be an “alternative”, it shouldn’t replace the “common” navigation
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To keep a clean and hierarchical structure of tag clouds you need to follow some simple guidelines.
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use of tag indexes instead of tag clouds.
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Franck VCompared to conventional navigation patterns tag clouds don't necessarily offer a more convenient and intuitive navigation. However, used properly, they can provide visitors with an
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Paul McMahonThis article offers some selected examples of tag clouds, its shortcomings and also some suggestions for tagging data and links in a more profound and effective way.
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Cherice MontgomeryExcellent article with lots of good examples that distinguishes between different types of tag clouds, gives examples of what not to do, and provides links to generators.
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Due to their “cloudy” form the design of tag clouds sets them apart from other design elements on a page.
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- Tags are sorted alphabetically. The most important or frequent terms are highlighted via an appropriate font size.
- Tags are sorted alphabetically. All terms have the same font size and weight. More important terms are highlighted with a font color or a background color.
- Tags are sorted according to their importance or frequency. Both font-size and colors can be used to emphasize the importance of terms.
- Tags aren’t sorted at all. Font-size, font-weight and colors in use.
- Tags are sorted according to their similarity. Similar terms appear as neighbours next to each other. A variety of visual formatting can be applied.
Types of Tag Clouds
There is a variety of ways to implement tag clouds. Some methods are more popular than the other ones. Most clouds are primarily sorted alphabetically.
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An interesting tendency we’ve been observing recently is the use of tag indexes instead of tag clouds.
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In fact, it’s used more and more often — in indexes the tags are sorted alphabetically.
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Font-size-weighted Tag Clouds
In many cases tag clouds are placed within a sidebar on the left or the right side of the page; therefore they usually don’t have much site area to fill. Consequently, enormous fonts are used sparingly.
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Colorful Tag Clouds
Instead of large font sizes designers tend to use colors. The weight of the tags isn’t only determined by the font-size, but also by the color it has. The more contrast exists between the color of the tag and the background, the more active the tag is. “Passive” tags usually have colors more similar to the background color — they have to remain in the background.
Caution: the more colors are used, the more irritating tag clouds are. Visitors have to be able to gain an immediate understanding of how tag weights are distributed; a variety of colors doesn’t provide any helpful information. What do the used colors stand for? Is green more important than blue? In most cases 2-3 colors should be the maximal number of colors used in a tag cloud.
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Jason Bao on 2007-11-13
In most cases 2-3 colors should be the maximal number of colors used in a tag cloud.
三色原则
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Tagclouds as Startpages
On these web-sites tag cloud is the only design element used on the start page. Extreme tag-o-rama. Frankly, some content would be quite useful.
A map of Google News. Take notice of the arrows: they symbolize the development of popularity of the given tag.
Extreme-Tagging on Plurn. And no, it’s not the original screenshot. It was scaled down.
This site is kind of links-directory. The color of the tags stands for the topic the tag belongs to. E.g. pink stands for fashion. Many users might have problems sorting out what is what.
Chain of thoughts: a web-site as a single tag cloud. -
Winkwaves Tag Cloud Generator
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Understanding Tag Clouds explains the theory behind tag clouds, their use in practice and displays some examples.
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David Feld"[T]he main advantage of tag clouds lies in their ability to highlight the most important or/and popular subjects dynamically which is not the case in conventional navigation menus."
tags taxonomy webdesign navigation tagging categorization articles webdev
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Tag Clouds Gallery: Examples And Good Practices
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brunurb Δtag clouds don’t necessarily offer a more convenient and intuitive navigation. However, used properly, they can provide visitors with an instant illustration of the main topics, giving users a very specific and precise orientation of the site’s conten
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06 Nov 07
Public Stiky Notes
三色原则
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