// Sorry, forgot to CC the list! Please see below: Hi, Maureen!
Maureen said: >> Does anyone know of any resources regarding the drawbacks of tag clouds or >> the debate about their value versus their drawbacks. Not offhand, but here's as good as any place to create a resource, eh? Tags themselves are great for a list of reasons longer than the Bayeux Tapestry. However, I have one key drawback I can think of right away about tag *clouds* and that is accessibility. As far as I can tell, the purpose of a tag cloud is 100% to serve visual users unless some fine respondent wants to shoot that down. It is at any rate not at all straightforward for the user of aural and/or low vision technologies to "get" the value of a tag cloud. Time and again, I see less popular tags in tiny, tiny text. Resize the text in the browser and the big tags fill the entire viewport! Then if you're just using CSS to do your font sizes, how do you effectively emphasise the relationships between tags for aural users? Plus we already know that Aural CSS has about as much support as Rod Blagojevich: http://lab.dotjay.co.uk/notes/css/aural-speech/ You could take a different approach by supplying additional, perhaps hidden, info. In working up to his last example here ... http://24ways.org/2006/marking-up-a-tag-cloud ... Mr Francis quite rightly bemoans the lack of semantic "infusion" but his finished example is not particularly engaging for a user of assistive technologies. Consider the effect of our poor old screenreader hacking through that tag cloud. Listening to that would be like spending a wet weekend in Bangor. Just in case you think I'm getting a bit puffed up about this, I use a badly marked up tag cloud myself on my own site. I even hide the tags themselves. Why? Well for one thing, it's my site and I'm allowed to. But really it's because when you hide the tags themselves and just show the block, then do some stuff to harmoniously randomise the colours, the result is web-based Mondrian, and I love it. It's a visual effect and I love Mondrian. But then I wouldn't presume to take a blind person on a date to MOMA. Thanks, Mike ------------------- www.mikepadgett.com ------------------- > >>Hi All, >> >>Does anyone know of any resources regarding the drawbacks of tag >>clouds or the debate about their value versus their drawbacks. I have >>a bee in my bonnet about them and would like write a point of view but >>want to do appropriate research first. I found one previous thread >>herein and intend to google into the wee hours but if anyone can help >>shorten my research time by pointing me in a direction, I’d be most >>appreciative. >> >>And of course, if anyone in the group has opinions, they are most >>welcome as well J >> >>Thanks, >>Maureen >> >> >>Maureen Murphy >>President >> >> >> >> >> >> >>516-670-8000 >>www.usabilitymedic.com >> >> >> >>________________________________________________________________ >>Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! >>To post to this list ....... [email protected] >>Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe >>List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines >>List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
