Redesigning Android Emoji – Google Design

Re:Redesigning Android Emoji – Google Design by cooper12 on Friday May 19, 2017 @03:21AM (#14373580)

The problem with the previous blob emoji was that they weren't as neutral as you think. [0] For example, Information Desk Person all the way to the right in this image [1] is obviously a woman. The second emoji with dancing has a rose in its mouth, which is more often associated with men than women. Even the police officer to the left looks more like a man due to lack of feminine features. There are a lot of culture nuances you might not notice that will make people feel alienated, like gay men wanting men in leotards dancing. You can find issues with a lot of the old emoji and a big factor mentioned in this post was a loss of consistency. Not everyone views yellow skin as color-neutral, but rather as a default for white; many people would rather have emoji that match their own skin color. Lastly, emoji were culturally specific from the outset by virtue of originating from Japan so your whole premise is flawed.

[0]: http://blog.emojipedia.org/android-7-1-emoji-changelog/#whyg... [1]: http://blog.emojipedia.org/content/images/2016/10/android-7-...

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Re:Redesigning Android Emoji – Google Design by traspler on Friday May 19, 2017 @08:25AM (#14374901)

Culturally flavoured emojis are not problem. There will always be gestures, context, emotions which differ greatly between different parts of the world. I don't have a problem with that. As you said, the emojis come from japan and there are some emojis I seldom use because I have no cultural need for them. I think this is different from skin/hair color and gender and actually contributes meaningfully to the conversation. "Blob kneeling to beg for forgiveness" might not be used where I live but contributes just as much as a "shrug" which I use more often but does not get used in japan.

My main point is that it does not contribute anything meaningful, or in my opinion can even be counterproductive, to explicitly express "brown colored, female thumbs up" instead of a more neutral "thumbs up".

I see your point that there are some emojis where might be too stereotyped even in the blob form and that there are already many preconceptions about how some blobs are understood. The police officer blob or the flight attendant blob are good examples. That yellow skin is considered a default for white or that people automatically see a blob with a police hat as male is a difficult subject and I'm unsure how to solve this perfectly in a general way.

It is in no way perfect, yes, but I argue that it's a better direction than going the other way by introducing more and more ways to individualise them.

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