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This week in ux-clinic: Lost in the tag cloud

This week in the ux-clinic discussion forum– Lost in the tag cloud:

I do both design and usability for a midsize start-up (30 people) in the newsreader space.

We’re vulnerable (at least our VP is) to UI trends – as soon as our competitors do something, he’s running around telling everyone we have to do the same thing.

Last week, one of our competitors switched to a tag, and tag cloud UI for their website, and as the night follows day, our VP is now pushing us to redesign with a tag, and tag cloud model.

I have my own opinions, but I can’t find any ux research on tags and tag clouds – what problem do they solve? When should you use them and when are they a mistake? Should they really be the primary way to get around a website? I’m looking for both opinions and data to help me sort out my stance, but also to add some thinking to our trend-happy debates.

– Lost in the tag cloud

Reference: A screen shot and some examples can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_cloud