Investigating the Effects of Navigation Cues in a Tag Cloud

Abstract

Tag clouds as a social networking software allow users to describe a specific resource or another user using metadata, and simultaneously gain an insight into summarized descriptions provided by the online community. By employing visual cues in a tag cloud, users match the power of those external associations with the internal knowledge, and can follow a multitude of navigational paths to a desired resource or topic of interest. This study analyzed the factors contributing to forming of such paths, focusing on visual aspects and user acceptance. The analysis of hundred studies partially revealed the combinations of visual cues having the highest impact on users when selecting a tag, along with the additional factors relevant to successful implementation of tag clouds. These findings, embedded in the proposed development method aspire to provide guidance with design efforts, realized through a tag cloud user interface software simulation.