Poynter develops word cloud tool

The tool allows users to configure the algorithm to match the questions being asked by the researcher and the text data being analysed.

After generating a first estimate of the word cloud, it allows the user to customise results, for example, based on the bias towards or away from multi-word phrases or the the choice of stop words. It also shows frequency and scores for the word, bigrams, and trigrams in the text.

The free tool can be used to visualise open-ended survey responses, present findings, and as a starting point for deeper text analysis.

Ray Poynter (pictured) is managing director at The Future Place and chief research officer at Platform One.

He said: “Lots of people seem to be using word clouds. Many of these clouds are significantly underwhelming. So, we decided to produce something which leverages the intelligence of the user to create a better result.”