Facebook's 2015 Emoticons (Photo : YouTube)
Facebook's CEO recently announced that the social network users' most requested feature was a Dislike button. While Mark Zuckerberg seemed to dismiss a thumbs-down button to show sadness or sympathy, a choice from a small emoji set would be an alternative.
Several news outlets assumed that Zuckerberg was proposing a Dislike button. However, he stated that the social media giant did not want to simply build such a button as it would limit responses to voting up or down.
TruthCo CEO Linda Ong explained that a Dislike button could also have a negative effect on Hollywood. Several Dislikes could create negative buzz that impacts the marketing and rollout of a TV series or movie, according to The Wrap.
Facebook could opt for the model of Slack's workplace chat app. The problem is that users can choose from a wide array of emojis, so their meaning could be unclear.
A more practical option would be to give users a limited emoji set for responding to posts in the comments area. It could include emoticons like those of social network Path: Heart, Smile, Winking Smile, Surprised, or Frown.
Danny Trinh was a Path designer. He told Tech Crunch that he reduced the spectrum of human emotions to five core emojis.
Trinh also worked with Digg, which made the up-vote and down-vote model popular. Like Facebook it wanted to address the awkward situation of clicking a thumbs-up icon about a tragic news story.
Path CEO Dave Morin and Trinh consolidated various emotional categories in order to create a reduced interface, according to Tech Crunch. They then agreed on five emojis.
In the past Facebook has used designs from social media apps such as Path, including fly buttons to post statuses and a thumbs-up in Messenger. It could also add a Sad emoji in News Feed, building on its Feeling status update.
