News feed through Facebook can be made more expressive as Facebook launched “Reactions” to the world. The feature was tested in many countries. This function is the extension of the existing feature available. People can enjoy five different animated emoji by long pressing the like button. Each icon conveys a reaction or emotion. The emoji convey emotions like wow, love, ha ha, sad, happy and angry.
Facebook worked on this reaction product for the past one year. Julie Zuho Product Design Director at Facebook worked on the Reactions product. Facebook realized the need of an option to provide quick feedback which can be quick, easy and gesture-based. Emoji is the best choice for conveying people’s emotions to others.
Over 1.5 billion people accessed Facebook through mobile in December 2015. 90 percent of the people access Facebook through mobile.
Facebook researched on the sentiments the users expressed often. They focused on the mostly used stickers, emoji, and word comments. By conducting a detailed research, they tried to limit the emoji options. The biggest challenge faced by the team was the difficulty in choosing the most used emoji from the huge options available. Zuho and the team analyzed how the Facebook users make use of the various emoji available. Facebook finally decided six emotions for their latest reaction product.
Geoff Tehan design director of Facebook said that the Reactions should satisfy two main criteria: Universality and Expressivity. The reactions chosen should be universally accepted by all the people around the world. The emoji designed should express the intended feeling clearly without any ambiguity. As the emoji are non-verbal they should not create any confusion in the meaning they try to convey. Facebook has incorporated animation of emoji in their latest Reaction option. Facebook have also included sound effects to clarify the emotions.
