Mastering Word Clouds with ChatGPT: A walkthrough

?? Hello everyone!

In this edition of our newsletter, we’re diving into a favourite topic for many of us in the customer experience field: word clouds! Whether you’ve been using them to quickly decipher customer feedback or are just curious about how they can add value to your data analysis toolkit, I hope this guide brings you some fresh insights.

What's the Big Deal with Word Clouds?

Word clouds aren't just visually engaging; they're incredibly useful for spotting key themes at a glance. But as familiar as they might seem, there's always something new to learn, especially with generative AI tools like ChatGPT changing the game.

The Ups and Downs of Word Clouds

Love or loathe them, opinions about word clouds are quite split. Here's why some swear by them, and others steer clear:

Pros:

• Quick Insights: Spot the most frequently mentioned words in your customer feedback instantly.
• Engagement: They make presentations pop! Who doesn’t like a bit of colour in reports?

Cons:

• Simplicity Can Mislead: Sometimes, they oversimplify complex data sets.
• Lacks Context: It's easy to misinterpret the significance of words without their surrounding text.

Despite their drawbacks, word clouds can't be beaten for providing a top-level feel of the verbatims at a glance, especially when space is at a premium.

Creating Smarter Word Clouds with ChatGPT

Did you know you can generate word clouds with ChatGPT since they introduced Code Explorer last year? Let’s walk through how to make a word cloud that’s not only smart but looks great, too!

In this scenario, we'll ask ChatGPT to create some data

After it's created the data, we can simply prompt ChatGPT to "create a Word cloud", and it will generate something like this:

This is OK, but the colours don't mean anything, they are simply there to differentiate between the words.

So, let's go back and update the dataset to add sentiment score against the theme.

Generate the word cloud again by prompting "Create a word cloud using sentiment for text colour"

This is better as you can see Cleanliness is most mentioned but also very positive.

Personally, there is too much to view, so let's take the top 10

And make the colours more accessible

Here, the negative words are in shades of blue, and the positive words are in shades of green, which is easier for those with various color blindnesses. However, you'll probably want to specify a color palette that is accessible and provides high contrast.

To increase the emphasis in the difference between word frequency, you can increase the relative scaling that defaults to 0.5

Other options are to change the image output size, font names, background color and min/max font sizes.

The great thing about ChatGPT code interpreter is that if you're not sure about something, you can simply ask what the options are.

Why Not Make It Prettier with DALL-E?

For when you need a bit of flair, why not use DALL-E to add a creative background to your word cloud? Perfect for making your reports stand out or even jazzing up presentation slides.

Well, here's what happened when I tried:

Which looks promising until you start to read the spelling mistakes!

Just for fun, this is what you get when you ask for "the same word cloud, no spelling mistakes in the style of The Simpsons":

... so it looks like we'll have to wait a little while longer to get anything meaningful. But perhaps a glimpse of word clouds of the future?

Beyond Word Clouds

As much as we love word clouds, there are more fishes in the sea of data visualization:

• Interactive Treemaps: Great for diving deeper into hierarchical data.
• Sunburst Charts: These can illustrate levels of data in a compelling, easy-to-understand manner.
• Bar Charts: Classic bar charts are invaluable for straightforward comparisons between words or categories. They visually quantify differences, making it easier to evaluate which themes are most prominent.

However, while charts provide clear comparisons, they also have their limitations. They generally require more space on a page, and word clouds offer that immediate 'at-a-glance' impact, providing a quick snapshot of data without the cognitive load typically associated with more complex charts.

Interactive Word Clouds: Enhancing Engagement and Navigation

As we delve deeper into the utility of word clouds, let’s not overlook how they can become more than just a static image. By incorporating interactive elements into word clouds, we can significantly enhance user engagement and provide richer insights.

• Tooltips for Details: Imagine hovering over a word, and a tooltip pops up, offering more detailed information or even specific comments that include that word. This small addition can turn a simple glance into a deep dive, revealing the context behind the words, which is often lost in traditional word clouds.
• Clickable Navigation: Additionally, making each word clickable can serve as a powerful navigation tool. Click on a term, and you’re taken to a new screen or a filtered list of responses that focus solely on that aspect of the feedback. This feature is particularly useful in applications where understanding customer sentiments in detail drives decision-making.

These interactive enhancements not only make word clouds more informative but also more engaging, encouraging users to explore and interact with the data in a meaningful way.

Let's Chat!

?? What has been your experience with using word clouds? Do you have any tips or perhaps challenges you’ve faced? I’d love to hear all about it, and let’s learn from each other!

Conclusion

Thank you for diving into the world of word clouds and AI-enhanced text analytics with me. I hope this guide has been insightful and contributes to your journey toward a deeper understanding of customer feedback.