Abstract
Instant messaging is a popular form of text-based communication. However, text-based messaging lacks the ability to communicate nonverbal information such as that conveyed through facial expressions and voice tones, although a multitude of emotions may underlie the text of a conversation between participants. In this paper, we propose an approach that uses typefaces to communicate emotions. We investigated which typefaces are useful for delivering emotions and introduced these typefaces into a mobile chat app. We conducted a survey to demonstrate how changes in the typeface of a message affected the meaning of the message conveyed. Our user study provides an understanding of the actual user experience with the application. The results show that the use of multiple typefaces in a message can affect and intensify the valence received by users and the use of multiple typefaces elicited an active response and brought about a livelier mood during texting.
Highlights
The sharing of emotions among people can elicit empathy, increase a friendly feeling, and even improve mental health [14]
We demonstrated the feasibility of using typefaces to communicate emotions
We explored the user experiences with role-playing and focus group discussion studies
Summary
The sharing of emotions among people can elicit empathy, increase a friendly feeling, and even improve mental health [14]. In face-to-face situations, people can express their emotions or feelings with facial expressions, voice tones, gestures, and so on. The function of emotional expressions is to express one’s inner state, and to guide a situation toward an intended mood [15]. If the person makes the Multimedia Tools and Applications (2019) 78:14155–14172 request in an overbearing tone of voice, the mood may be negative, and the receiver may feel coerced to respond. In this way, nonverbal signals can change the receiver’s attitude, which can affect his or her reaction to the situation. Despite the importance of nonverbal cues in effective communication, computer-mediated communication tools such as text-based communication (e-mail or text messaging apps) inherently lack nonverbal signals for conveying emotional information [45]
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