HACKER Q&A
📣 greghausheer

Do emojis belong in Design Systems?


I've noticed over the past few years more software companies including emojis in their apps. I'm not talking about in chat and text, but in the actual product itself.

Notion (https://www.notion.so/) uses them in their starter templates.

RemoteOK (https://remoteok.io/) uses them to signal filters.

Countless other companies are starting to sprinkle these in their apps instead of designing icons or building more thoughtful UX.

I'm not really sold on the idea. I feel a bit coddled when everywhere I look there's an emoji.

Do companies consider them as part of their actual Design System or Brand Book, or are just using them given they are popular, catchy, and resonate to younger users?

  👤 detaro Accepted Answer ✓
Having them in templates for user input makes sense - because users can easily input text and emoji, and thus are likely to use them. Few apps have custom graphical characters instead.

In the UI where you have full control, less so, but there's a counter-example: reaction emoji in messengers IMHO make sense to be emoji that users already know.