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Abstract

Emoticons are graphic signs illustrated with ASCII characters to accompany text-based computer-mediated communication (Dresner & Herring, 2010). The effects of using emoticons has begun to be investigated, but little effort has been put forth to determine how well people are able to interpret the meaning of emoticons. Preliminary data from the current research effort is reported to indicate how well 34 undergraduate students were able to correctly interpret 50 distinct emoticons from Yahoo Messenger. Results suggest that correct interpretation varied widely between emoticons, and the reported frequency of use was positively correlated with emoticon interpretability. Research and design implications are discussed, as well as questions for future research.

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