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AniBalloons: Animated Chat Balloons as Affective Augmentation for Social Messaging and Chatbot Interaction

Pengcheng An, Chaoyu Zhang, Haichen Gao, Ziqi Zhou, Yage Xiao, Jian Zhao

TL;DR

This work introduces AniBalloons, a library of 30 chat-balloon animations designed to convey six basic emotions and calmness. Through a design-driven RtD process and three studies, the authors evaluate recognizability, affective properties in a valence–arousal space, and the impact on user experience in mobile messaging and chatbot interactions. The results show that about 80% of animations clearly communicate intended emotions, and the animations enhance perceived affective communication quality, nonverbal information conveyance, perceived closeness, and chatbot likability and personality. These findings support animated chat balloons as a viable nonverbal channel to enrich text-based communication and offer practical guidance for integrating such animations into messaging systems and conversational agents.

Abstract

Despite being prominent and ubiquitous, message-based interaction is limited in nonverbally conveying emotions. Besides emoticons or stickers, messaging users continue seeking richer options for affective communication. Recent research explored using chat balloons' shape and color to communicate emotional states. However, little work explored whether and how chat-balloon animations could be designed to convey emotions. We present the design of AniBalloons, 30 chat-balloon animations conveying Joy, Anger, Sadness, Surprise, Fear, and Calmness. Using AniBalloons as a research means, we conducted three studies to assess the animations' affect recognizability and emotional properties (N = 40), and probe how animated chat balloons would influence communication experience in typical scenarios including instant messaging (N = 72) and chatbot service (N = 70). Our exploration contributes a set of chat-balloon animations to complement non-nonverbal affective communication for a range of message-based interfaces, and empirical insights into how animated chat balloons might mediate particular conversation experiences (e.g., perceived interpersonal closeness, or chatbot personality).

AniBalloons: Animated Chat Balloons as Affective Augmentation for Social Messaging and Chatbot Interaction

TL;DR

This work introduces AniBalloons, a library of 30 chat-balloon animations designed to convey six basic emotions and calmness. Through a design-driven RtD process and three studies, the authors evaluate recognizability, affective properties in a valence–arousal space, and the impact on user experience in mobile messaging and chatbot interactions. The results show that about 80% of animations clearly communicate intended emotions, and the animations enhance perceived affective communication quality, nonverbal information conveyance, perceived closeness, and chatbot likability and personality. These findings support animated chat balloons as a viable nonverbal channel to enrich text-based communication and offer practical guidance for integrating such animations into messaging systems and conversational agents.

Abstract

Despite being prominent and ubiquitous, message-based interaction is limited in nonverbally conveying emotions. Besides emoticons or stickers, messaging users continue seeking richer options for affective communication. Recent research explored using chat balloons' shape and color to communicate emotional states. However, little work explored whether and how chat-balloon animations could be designed to convey emotions. We present the design of AniBalloons, 30 chat-balloon animations conveying Joy, Anger, Sadness, Surprise, Fear, and Calmness. Using AniBalloons as a research means, we conducted three studies to assess the animations' affect recognizability and emotional properties (N = 40), and probe how animated chat balloons would influence communication experience in typical scenarios including instant messaging (N = 72) and chatbot service (N = 70). Our exploration contributes a set of chat-balloon animations to complement non-nonverbal affective communication for a range of message-based interfaces, and empirical insights into how animated chat balloons might mediate particular conversation experiences (e.g., perceived interpersonal closeness, or chatbot personality).
Paper Structure (21 sections, 9 figures, 2 tables)

This paper contains 21 sections, 9 figures, 2 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Affective Enhancement for Messages
  4. Chat Balloon Related Affective Design
  5. Affective Animation Design for HCI Systems
  6. Study 1: Creating AniBalloons through an Iterative Design-driven Research
  7. Design Requirements
  8. Design Process
  9. AniBalloons
  10. Study 2: Emotion Recognizability and Emotional Properties of AniBalloons
  11. Methods
  12. Emotion Recognizability of AniBalloons
  13. Perceived Emotional Properties of AniBalloons
  14. Study 3-a: Potential Effects of Animated Chat Balloons on Messaging Experience
  15. Methods
  16. ...and 6 more sections

Figures (9)

  • Figure 1: Samples of collected design inspirations.
  • Figure 2: The 30 designed AniBalloons: Anger:1-Fire-spitting2-Erupting3-Clenching4-Shouting5-ExplodingCalmness:6-Rippling7-Breathing8-Bubbling9-Drifting10-FloatingFear:11-Quivering12-Shuddering13-Shaking14-Huddling15-RecoilingJoy:16-Celebrating17-Cheering18-Shining19-Hailing20-SwingingSadness:21-Tear-shedding22-Lying-down23-Weeping24-Melting25-WhiningSurprise:26-Zooming27-Splashing28-Popping29-Unboxing30-Springing See an anonymized video demonstration via: https://youtu.be/qYASU2a0ktU
  • Figure 3: AniBalloons used for evaluation: rendered on chat balloons with grey base color and pseudo Latin texts
  • Figure 4: Emotion recognizability of AniBalloons
  • Figure 5: Emotional properties of AniBalloons. TOP: AniBalloons' distribution on valence-arousal plane. BOTTOM: AniBalloons's distribution in reference with frequently used emojis and VibEmoji vibemoji motions.
  • ...and 4 more figures