Joanne Leong, Olivia Seow, Cathy Mengying Fang, Benny J. Tang, Rajan Vaish, and Pattie Maes. 2022. Wemoji: Towards Designing Complementary Communication Systems in Augmented Reality. In The Adjunct Publication of the 35th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST ’22 Adjunct), October 29-November 2, 2022, Bend, OR, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 3 pages.

Abstract

Augmented Reality (AR) can enable new forms of self-expression and communication. However, little is known about how AR experiences should be designed to complement face-to-face communication. We present an initial set of insights derived from the iterative design of a mobile AR app called Wemoji. It enables people to emote or react to one another by spawning visual AR effects in a shared physical space. As an additional communication medium, it can help add volume and dimension to what is exchanged. We outline a design space for AR complementary communication systems, and offer a set of insights from initial testing that points towards how AR can be used to enhance same-time same-place social interactions.