![]() On the web, this is underscored by the fact that the purpose of "writing" has changed. ![]() A large, empty text box can leave the impression that any comment has to be insightful and constructive, and that has grown the popularity of like buttons, seemingly a more appropriate way to express simple emotions like, "Good job!" or "I agree with this." Emojis act as a kind of midpoint between a like button and a longer comment, allowing users to add more emotional weight to a comment. Emojis act as a kind of tool to encapsulate more information into posts that otherwise might feel bland and emotionless: sending a text that says "Happy birthday!" is very different than sending a "Happy Birthday!" text laden with emoticons. Keep in mind that this is true whether we're talking in person or on the web: much of real-world communication is actually conveyed via body language and facial expressions. In my experience, much of the push to visual communication (Snapchat, Tumblr, emoji) is driven by the simple fact that most people actually don't have much to say. This will either require some user research on your part, or a simple leap of faith that it will provide value. The question becomes whether emoji have meaning in your scenario, which means that you need to determine whether your users have a need and a desire to communicate emotions in the way that emoji allows. I think that it's clear that emoji have value in some instances. Adding a :) doesn't mean that the reader will understand the intent of the writer's message. This is, of course, true for emoticons as well. If someone reads an emoji and has to ask what it means, then they might or might not see the value because they might not understand the emotion that the writer is trying to convey. If someone both reads and writes emoji, then we can assume that they find value both as a reader and a writer. It's somewhat more difficult to determine whether readers see value in them, but there are some ways to understand. After all, think of how few FAQs contain Questions that are actually Frequently Asked.) Given that they're widely used in many different types of online communication, this tells you that the writers who use them view them as providing value over a plain emoticon. Just because someone else has created a cheat sheet for emoji doesn't mean that the cheat sheet is widely used. (Although I would note that you should avoid confirmation bias here. Writers use them, even though they either have memorized a handful of them, or need to go look at a cheat sheet to find the one that they're thinking of but can't remember its code. The value proposition needs to be considered from the perspective of the person who uses the emoji, as well as the person who reads the emoji. The apparently-abandoned Narratives in Emoji tumblr is an excellent example of how much meaning can be conveyed using only emoji. Sending a text saying "let's get drinks tonight" doesn't give as positive of a feeling as sending a text that has the emoji :cocktail. ![]() Emoji take that idea and extend it further. Is there any value in using emojis over the classical emoticons?Įmoticons evolved to give writers the opportunity to express an emotion, and gives readers the opportunity to better understand the tone of the written communication that they have received. In addition, because I can't be bothered loading up the cheat sheet most of the time, I just end up using the same 3 or 4 emojis in my posts and comments. Having to use something like :smile: over :) provides more friction too. The fact that someone has created cheat sheet means that I am not the only one having this problem. However, from my personal experience, I have always found them hard to use (because I need to remember all the codes :smile:, :stuck_out_tongue: etc). ![]() The second approach is a plain text area where users will need to type in :) or :smile: and an autocomplete dropdown like github's:Įmojis provide a lot of images which does add to the fun factor. I am considering cases where we provide a rich text editor and the user can select the appropriate emoji/emoticon from a drop down. These emoticons or emoji will be available to users in things like text areas for posting comments and writing blog posts. By emoticons, I mean the standard :), :P, ) etc.
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