Clouds V. Lists: Which Presentation do You Prefer?

Posted by Laura Bergells

November 5, 2007

For some visual presentations, I like clouds instead of lists.

Here’s an abbreviated example of a list. The list shows blog visits by city, from most visits to least:

And here’s (almost) the same data, represented in a cloud format:

The cloud arranges the cities in alphabetical order, but increases the size of the most popular cities. The most popular cities jump out at you, right away. And yet…the cloud also lets me quickly find what else might be interesting that isn’t popular.

For example, I’m from Grand Rapids, Michigan. I can scan the list alphabetically, and quickly see that Grand Rapids isn’t there. If the cities were in a list, I’d still be scanning and double-checking to try to find Grand Rapids.

Under which circumstances will you use a cloud instead of a list? And vice versa?