Expressive Signals : The art of connecting: Enhancing digital expression through crafted connectivity and micro-interactions

Abstract: How do we design for connection? How might we introduce quirkiness, personal expression and a little bit of magic to our unified, unemotional black screens? Working with design systems can have perks, but something gets lost when we systemise how we communicate. I argue to open up rigid design systems and loosen their rules to elicit something new that’s cute, weird, and so unique: it becomes magical. To make an empathic connection with people in their context. I apply research through design and user-centred methods to gain insights while prototyping along the way to test and tweak communication features. The result is "Expressive Signals," a repository of design explorations promoting personalised digital communication. The intention is to challenge the status quo and enhance expression and thrilling unexpectedness while connecting. They are five design examples playing with the following features; showing presence in digital conversations, how speech bubbles can match their content, how emojis can be personalised, creating a digital repository of cherished messages and ensuring that our messages get read in the right context. Expressive Signals allow users to cut through the noise and generate strong signals to enhance expression in digital systems. The focus is on combining, tweaking, and exploring new digital communication elements to enhance expression and connect on a deeper level. They utilise micro-interactions, haptics and tools with purposefully loose constraints to invite to be broken, to elicit what we don’t expect. Expressive signals promote play, joy, and other aspects of life that have been neglected in favour of utility or pragmatism in digital communication spaces. I am asking: can a system ever make space for the thrilling and unexpected? Design bursts with self-expression. I intend to design for precisely that. This passion project dwells on my interest in language, communication, storytelling and every nerdy cognitive science bit around it. It explores how to combine and tweak new features to enhance expression, ultimately aiming to design for self-expression and unexpected magic.