The document outlines a research project exploring the future of emoticons as an alternative form of expression in text-based messaging. The research methodology included literature reviews, expert interviews, and an online survey of 69 college students and faculty. Key findings from the data analysis were that emoticons help convey feeling and make communication more engaging when words alone are not enough. Users preferred messages containing emoticons and felt they better expressed actual emotions. However, some respondents noted a lack of emoticons for every emotional state. The research concluded that emoticons are becoming an important means of communication and could be made more interactive and representative of diversity in the future.

1. Guide - Vipul Vinzuda & Tripurasundari Joshi
Year- 2016
Pr ject
Research Methodology
Shreya Gupta_ TGD
Sneha Sarang_PHD
Pranshu Chaudhary_NMD
Paridhi Diwan_NMD
Neel Kadia_NMD
Documentation
nd th
22 to 27 Feb
Future of Emoticons as an alternative to our
expressions in text based messaging ?

2. Index
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Acknowledgment
List of Images
Research context
Literature review
Conceptual framework
Primary research methods
Data analysis
Summary
Limitations and future scope
Bibliography
Annexure
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Chapter Title Page No.
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3. Acknowledgement
I wish to express my sincere thanks to the Research Methodology course faculty Prof.Vipul Vinzuda,
co-coordinator, Transportation and Automobile Design for conducting the course and constant
guidance.
We would also like to thank Prof. Tripurasundari Joshi for enormous support and encouragement.
We would like to thank Ms.Deepali Saini, Ms.Sudhanya and Mr.Parag Vyas for sharing their
research and providing valuable insights into the methodology involved.
We would also like to thank all the participants in the research for their valuable contribution and
cooperation.
Research Methodology i

4. List of images
1.) Image 3.1 Research plan diagram
2.) Image 3.2 Research Plan Infographics
3.) Image 5.2 Comparative study between popularity of emoji vs sticker vs gif
4.) Image 5.3 Graph showing data why people wont use emojis
5.) Image 5.4 What all changes do you want in current emoji?
6.) Image 5.5 Gender study
7.) Image 5.6 Emoji vs character symbols
8.) Image 5.7 Keyword cloud for features in emoji
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5. 01. RESEARCH CONTEXT
As assigned the theme for Research Methodology-2016 course 'Making our Future More
Humane', our group arrived at the following 3 questions;
1. How can Photographs be much more than just images?
2. How craft involvement in people's life can be increased through Rapid Prototyping?
3. Future of Emoticons as an alternative to our expressions in text based messaging?
Reason for choosing research question (3):
Ÿ It has been chosen by all the team members
Ÿ The topic has relevance in terms of making future of communication more Humane
Ÿ Text based communication through Computer mediated communications in the era of
non-Face to Face communication is growing increasingly.
1.1. Justification
Text messaging (Short Messaging Service; SMS) has become an important mode of
communication throughout the world and is increasing at a rapid rate. Text based messages
is the most popular way to communicate with their social networks, exceeding face-to-face
(F2F) communications, emails, and voice calls. Thus it a need was felt to start an inquiry
into this mode of communication and find out the factors that affect its efficiency in
communicating the messages when they are more than just words. Emoticons are popularly
used as graphical symbols to represent the user's emotions and expressions in this mode of
communication, thus we chose to study the role of emoticons.
1.2. Relevance to the theme of 'Making the Future more Humane':
Communication is not just a matter of speaking, writing, and interpreting words. However,
communication theories (e.g., social presence theory) have purported that Computer
Mediated Communication lacks contextual information and that the medium is disruptive for
understanding. Thus to make the conversation more humane it is necessary to understand
this medium.
1.3. Scope of Work
Our goal in the present study was to understand how emoticons are used in text messaging
and, in particular, how well people understand the meaning and usage of variety of
emoticons used via this medium. Previous research has found small and sundry differences
in emotive expression online suggesting that technology has closed the communication gap.
This report provides a comprehensive account into how well people understand these
symbols to express their emotions online and also how well the receiver of the message
understands the context of the messages being relayed.
Ÿ Role of emoji and emoticons in providing context to message
Ÿ Relative popularity of emojis and emoticons
Ÿ General understanding of different emojis
Ÿ Speculation towards evolution of emojis in near future
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6. 02. Literature Review
Research Methodology Page 2
Text messaging (short messages, chat, etc) has become an important mode of
communication throughout the world and is increasingly becoming popular at a rapid
rate. In general people use this mode of communication to coordinate activity, maintain
social relationship, fill dead time and share information with others in their social
networks.
Our interest in the current study is the use of emoticons via this modality. Similar to other
types of computer mediated communication (CMC), users can include emoticons within
text messages to provide socioemotional context. These visual cues have been noted as
the primary way to express emotion in CMC and a way to replace non-verbal
communications when not face to face.
Communication is not just the matter of speaking, writing and interpreting words. It is a
complex process that involves factors such as content, language. grammar, experience,
and non verbal cues. Many researchers have noted the importance of non verbal cues to
understanding the meaning and the nature of the message in face to face communication.
However, communication theories have purported that CMC lacks contextual information
and that the medium is disruptive for understanding the content and nature of messages.
For instance, this lack of contextual information has been blamed for causing electronic
message recipients to perceive the senders of those messages as behaving rudely and
offensively.
Recent studies suggest that emoticons can provide this information and enhance CMC.
Emoticons are emotions graphic representation facial expression that are embedded in
electronic messages. These include punctuation marks and letters to create expressions
such as happy, sad or frustrated. It is observed that these cues enhance the written
communication in the same way body language supports verbal communication.
When studied empirically, viewing text online without emoticons led to incorrect
interpretation of the nature of the message and the senders attitude. The inclusion of
emoticons helped readers better understand the level and direction of the emotional
context of the message being relayed.
Rezabek and Cochenour (1998) analyzed emails on listservs for emoticon content and
frequency of use. Emoticons were used in 1–25% of the emails compiled from various
listservs.
Since females use more non-verbal communication in F2F encounters (Derks et al.,
2008), researchers have been interested in understanding if this is also true in CMC.
However, when males joined mixed-gender groups, they used emoticonsmore frequently.
The former used them for humor and to display emotions while the latter used them
mostly for sarcasm. Male bloggers used more emoticons compared to female bloggers.
Emoticons are used differently across tasks, contexts, and mediums. People pay more
attention to faces. Brands using emoji marketing campaigns. Emoji save time. In 2010
emoji character sets incorporated into standard Unicode.Emojis being used as passcodes.
Emojis affect our mood.

7. 03. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK: PLAN
The research project is divided in five consecutive phases:
1. Research Questions:
The idea was to choose any three research areas with research questions. These research
questions were based on the underlining phenomenon of making our upcoming future more
humane. The missing human centric element of design was supposed to be studied.
2. Objective:
To explore the influence of Emoticons as non verbal cues.
· How different gender use emoticons differently.
· How business leverage use of emojis.
· Perception and understanding of emoji character.
· How emojis will evolve.
3. Data Collection:
The data collection began with literature review. Based on the literature review finding, the
primary research methodology was prepared that was concluded with meaningful data.
Information about lifestyle and behavioural study was conducted.
· Primary Data: Survey (Questionnaire), Literature Review
· Secondary Data: Market study, Statistical Data.
4. Analysis:
The data was then analysed to pull out the major findings.
5. Recommendations:
Our recommendations would be based in the line of improving the overall appeal and
functionality of text based Computer mediated messages through emoji and emoticons
supplementing as non-verbal cues.
Image 3.1
Research plan diagram
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8. Image 3.2
Research plan Infographics
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9. 04. PRIMARY RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Our primary research was done using two separate methods of research:
·Expert Interviews
We interviewed Sonali Chandrakar-NMD, about emoji's role in context of computer mediated
communication and the future scope of emoji as non-verbal cues in non-face to face.
·Online Survey
Since youngsters are the ones who are mostly involved in the text based messaging, we chose
our sample set from college students and faculties.
We conducted online survey among 69 PG college students and faculties of NID. The data
was collected and comparison chart were plotted.
The questionnaire for the survey was prepared in a very exhaustive manner to cover most
aspects of our research. Special attention was paid while framing the language of the question
so as to make sure that the user provides the correct information that was needed and leaves
no room for ambiguity.
The idea in this questionnaire was to understand the usage statistics based on gender and age
demographics. Also an attempt was made to have a look into the general understanding of
different emoji being used by various users and how well do the understand them. We also
tried to understand the usage scenarios, as in when a user used the emoji and when not in a
text based message.
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10. 4.1. PRIMARY RESEARCH OUTPUT (SURVEY DATA)
The charts below show the data that was collected from the users:
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14. 05. DATAANALYSIS
The survey results were studied and following resulted from the churning of the data:
Ÿ ·Youngsters, mostly between the age group of 18-25, were the major users of emoji in text-based
messaging. Around 62.9% users used emoji in all of their conversations.
Ÿ ·People preferred messages that contained emoji. The results show that around 40.3% people
preferred messages with emoji.
Ÿ ·When asked whether You share your actual expression through emoji, and You think there are
enough emoji available to express all forms of emotions, 32.4% said that yes the felt that they
were relaying their actual emotion and 45.9% felt that although there are many emoji but still not
enough for every state of emotion.
Ÿ ·62% girls think emoji is better way of expressing emotions.
Ÿ ·When an inquiry was made into the popularity of the emoji vs stickers vs gif , majority of users
preferred emoji over stickers and gif.
Ÿ When asked why you don't use emoji major reasons were confusion, lack of meaning of emoji,
lack of time, too many emoji etc.
Image 5.1
155 81
93
Image 5.2
Comparative study between popularity of emoji vs sticker vs gif
Graph showing data why people wont use emojis
Image 5.3
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15. Ÿ ·When we asked people, what new emoji you would like to have/create? They responded
with keywords like friendship, kicking, face palm, lazy, voice interactive, 3D, Holograms etc.
Ÿ ·When enquired about why people used emoji they responded with various reasons like , it
conveys the feeling, It makes communication engaging, to shorten the communication, and to
give personal touch.
Image 5.4
What all changes do you want in current emoji?
Gender study
Image 5.5
Emoji vs character symbols
Image 5.6
Keyword cloud for features in emoji
Image 5.7
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16. 06. SUMMARY
After a thorough research and analysis of data collected from sample population following key
insights were drawn:
Ÿ ·Emoticons change the mood of conversation.
Ÿ ·Emoticons are effective in brand marketing.
Ÿ ·Perception of same emoji changes with different users.
Ÿ ·Use of emoticons is shifting vocabulary.
Ÿ ·Animated emoticons are less popular, at least as of now.
Ÿ ·To save time user use emoji in conversation and availability of varied emoji allows them to do it
in a very efficient fashion.
Ÿ ·Emoticons are a new form of language that we're producing.
Ÿ ·Because of increase in electronics and CMC, there has been loss of nonverbal cues that has made
conversation very vague. And use of emoji makes it more inter personal
Ÿ ·It affects the emotions felt by the receiver of message
Design Recommendations
Ÿ Same core shape should be maintained as that of original form.
Ÿ Gender combinations and skin tones reflects more human diversity.
Ÿ Annotations should be provided.
Ÿ Emoji suggestions while texting for fast and easy use by the elderly and everyone.
Ÿ Option to select any image and convert it to emoji and adding sound or animate it.
Image 6.1
Key findings
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17. 07. Limitations and future scope
Emoji and emoticons influence the way in which we communicate with each other. Users want
to make their conversations short, interactive and context oriented even in non-face to face
communication. Thus here we find significance of emoji. They are visually appealing, making
our conversations engaging, they set trends, and people are using them to promote their
product, service and even their own personalities. As everyone around the world is exposed to
changed technologies somewhat together, emoji are emerging as a universal language where in
people can understand the context of conversation even though the words might not be
understood.
The future of emoticons lies in making the emoticons more interactive and active, currently
these are only passive and often fail to convey the exact emotion as the user wants to convey.
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18. 08. Bibliography
1.) http://clay.rice.edu/pubs/Tossell-Emoticon-CHB12.pdf
2.) http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/media-arts-and-sciences/mas-965-social-visualization-fall
3.) http://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/06/23/the-psychology-of-emojis/#gref
4.) https://blog.bufferapp.com/7-reasons-use-emoticons-writing-social-media-according-science
5.) http://mashable.com/2014/06/23/emoji-psychology/#k4a2mR_3S5qi
6.) http://www.theodmgroup.com/2015/11/16/case-study-successful-emoji-marketing-campaigns/
7.) http://www.edelman.com/p/6-a-m/emoji-power/
8.) http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/30/you-may-be-accidentally-sending-friends-a-hairy-heart-emoji/
9.) http://www.indigodaily.com/pass-codes-of-the-future-emoji/
10.) http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr51/
11.) http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/02/06/3938772.htm
12.) http://unicode.org/faq/emoji_dingbats.html
13.) http://unicode.org/press/emoji.html
14.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgE_2XylOCk
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19. Research Methodology
Annexures
What is the purpose and aim of your inves ga on (what is the value/context of your topic)
Conversa on is much more than just speaking, wri ng, and interpre ng words. Language, grammar ,context,and
non-verbal cues are important to understand the meaning and context of conversa on in non face to face
communica on. The purpose is to inves gate the role of emo cons in providing the context to non face to face
communica on.
What is the problem or opportunity statement (what is the ques on you want to address)
To Explore the influence of Emo cons as non-verbal cues in understanding the meaning and nature of message
in computer mediated communica on.
What key informa on is required and what methods are being used to gain it (what knowledge do you need and
how are you ge ng)
Informa on collected- Usage frequency, Usage pa ern, Role of gender, context, percep on of different
emo cons
Methods- Expert interview and survey- ques onnaire
What are the major findings of your research so far (what data has been found)
1. When words are not enough to express emo ons
2. To make environment friendly, easy and lightly
3. To show your actual face/expression;
4. To make communica on more generous;
5. Adding personality to text based communica on;
6. Because of increase in electronics and CMC, there has been loss of non verbal queues that has made
conversa on very vague. And use of emojis makes it more inter personal
7. Frequency of using Emo cons affects the impression of another's personality in a online chat/text
messages.
8. It affects the emo ons felt by the receiver of message
9. Conversa on becomes more engaging while using images
10. People who are less expressed are found more
;
how people use emojis and what they use them to signify o en varies by your age, gender, loca on
and even social class.
To save me user use emojis in conversa on and availability of varied emojis allows them to do it in a
very efficient fashion.
Emojis are being used for marke ng and adver sing , as the imagery of their favorite brands, they
don’t see it as adver sing. They see it as self-expression
emojis are being used, apart from tex ng and online chat, to ignite emo ons that emojis can trigger .
h ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AevC1bPr6UM
they have become a intense part of our budding culture , it bridges gap between the digital interface
and one another.
Instant and wordless communica on to get services ; h ps://youtu.be/NtdLsJsObrU
Emo cons are a new form of language that we’re producing, and to decode that language we’ve
produced a new pa ern of brain ac vity
What is significant about your findings (what is the emphasis of your discussion)
Emojis and emo cons holds great importance in the way we communicate with each other . User want to make
their conversa ons short, interac ve and context oriented. Thus here we find significance of emojis.
They are visually appealing, making our conversa ons engaging, they set trends, people are using them to
promote their product, service and even their own personali es..
As everyone around the world is exposed to changed technologies somewhat together, emoji are emerging as a
universal language where in people can understand the context of conversa on even though the words might
not be understood. coool!!!
What are your recommenda ons (what is your research ‘product’, a guideline, specifica on, revised brief etc.)
Our recommenda ons would be based in the line of improving the overall appeal and func onality of text based
Computer mediated messages through emoji and emo cons supplemen ng as non-verbal cues.
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