Word Cloud

The most obvious strategy for visualizing text-based data is the word cloud, also known as a tag cloud, where frequent words or phrases are shown in larger, bolder font, and less-frequent words or phrases are shown in small font.

I’m not advocating for run-of-the-mill word clouds where you simply dump your interview transcripts into a word cloud and hope for the best. That’s not good data visualization. Instead, I’m talking about intentional word clouds – when you’ve considered other options, and have purposefully selected a word cloud as your format of choice.

Resources

• Word Cloud by Better Evaluation
• Word Cloud Dog Vomit, An Illustrated Rant by Humphrey Costello
• Beware the Word Cloud by Jon Schwabish

Examples

• Educators’ core beliefs in one word
• New York Times’ analysis of street names and home prices
• Statistical careers: Where are Harvard stats alumni? (small multiples version)

Tools

• Wordle
• Tagxedo

• Small Multiples Lines with Shading
• All
• Spark Lines and Spark Bars