5 ms·

I can't say I like or hate it (yet), but why do all the tech companies start using them simultaneously?

rglover 5y ago
Because independent thought is on life support. I'll be downvoted for that but most people are terrified of thinking for themselves. This is "safe" art.
gen220 5y ago
It's a design trend, and the digital design space is relatively small and strongly-connected. Many companies use the same set of design shops, or employ designers who look up to or learned from those shops. It's analogous to how engineers across the english-speaking world simultaneously began using Docker or Hadoop or whatever. "Network effects".
NelsonMinar 5y ago
https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/dont-worry-these-gangley-armed-cartoons-are-here-to-protect-you-from-big-tech/ https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/dont-worry-these-gangley-armed-...
nostromo 5y ago
It started with Facebook in 2017: https://buck.co/work/facebook-alegria https://buck.co/work/facebook-alegria It's popular because 1) it's cheap and easy to produce since it doesn't take much talent 2) it's easily vectorized and resizable 3) its color pallet and disproportionate human forms are supposed to make it feel universal. Google copied Facebook, then a bunch of companies copied Google. And now finally Apple is onboard too. It's not a good look for Apple, which usually tries to create design trends, not follow them.
- StevePerkins 5y ago
  > its color pallet and disproportionate human forms makes it feel universal So we went from having Homer Simpson universal-color emojis, to a pallet of specific-color emojis, to be more inclusive. And then switched from stock photos of diverse people, to Homer Simpson cartoons, to be more universal. We're just making this all up from year to year, aren't we?
  - cpmsmith 5y ago
    Not exactly – the "Homer Simpson" yellow emoji came after the initial (Apple) emoji font, which just had all the humans looking white, with no other options.
    - userbinator 5y ago
      Long before non-Japanese started calling them "emoji", we had "smilies" and they were yellow.
      - ectopod 5y ago
        Yes. PhpBB and my Nokia feature phone have had yellow smilies since before iPhones were a thing.
      - wellthisisgreat 5y ago
        This is accurate. https://mymodernmet.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/smiley-face-history-thumbnail.jpg https://mymodernmet.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/smiley...
    - nostromo 5y ago
      This is false. The first emojis were Japanese in origin and were the first to use yellow faces. Apple copied the existing style from the Japanese illustrations.
    - tomjakubowski 5y ago
      This is untrue. Not that any of them look like Simpsons characters, but the only emoji option on iOS for like five years was the yellow-shaded cartoon face. It's still the default skin tone in most emoji sets. https://emojipedia.org/emoji-1.0/ https://emojipedia.org/emoji-1.0/
      - cpmsmith 5y ago
        The cartoon faces have always been yellow, but the human ones, e.g. hands or gendered faces, were not until 2015 (on iOS). https://emojipedia.org/apple/iphone-os-2.2/ https://emojipedia.org/apple/iphone-os-2.2/ There was a lot of discourse about it at the time. https://www.fastcompany.com/3016256/are-emojis-racist https://www.fastcompany.com/3016256/are-emojis-racist
- beenBoutIT 5y ago
  Facebook: We don't just tolerate bad design we celebrate it!
seoulmetro 5y ago
Scared of being left out of a trend.

Because independent thought is on life support. I'll be downvoted for that but most people are terrified of thinking for themselves. This is "safe" art.

gen220 5y ago

It's a design trend, and the digital design space is relatively small and strongly-connected. Many companies use the same set of design shops, or employ designers who look up to or learned from those shops. It's analogous to how engineers across the english-speaking world simultaneously began using Docker or Hadoop or whatever. "Network effects".

NelsonMinar 5y ago

https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/dont-worry-these-gangley-armed-cartoons-are-here-to-protect-you-from-big-tech/ https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/dont-worry-these-gangley-armed-...

nostromo 5y ago

It started with Facebook in 2017: https://buck.co/work/facebook-alegria https://buck.co/work/facebook-alegria It's popular because 1) it's cheap and easy to produce since it doesn't take much talent 2) it's easily vectorized and resizable 3) its color pallet and disproportionate human forms are supposed to make it feel universal. Google copied Facebook, then a bunch of companies copied Google. And now finally Apple is onboard too. It's not a good look for Apple, which usually tries to create design trends, not follow them.

StevePerkins 5y ago
> its color pallet and disproportionate human forms makes it feel universal So we went from having Homer Simpson universal-color emojis, to a pallet of specific-color emojis, to be more inclusive. And then switched from stock photos of diverse people, to Homer Simpson cartoons, to be more universal. We're just making this all up from year to year, aren't we?
- cpmsmith 5y ago
  Not exactly – the "Homer Simpson" yellow emoji came after the initial (Apple) emoji font, which just had all the humans looking white, with no other options.
  - userbinator 5y ago
    Long before non-Japanese started calling them "emoji", we had "smilies" and they were yellow.
    - ectopod 5y ago
      Yes. PhpBB and my Nokia feature phone have had yellow smilies since before iPhones were a thing.
    - wellthisisgreat 5y ago
      This is accurate. https://mymodernmet.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/smiley-face-history-thumbnail.jpg https://mymodernmet.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/smiley...
  - nostromo 5y ago
    This is false. The first emojis were Japanese in origin and were the first to use yellow faces. Apple copied the existing style from the Japanese illustrations.
  - tomjakubowski 5y ago
    This is untrue. Not that any of them look like Simpsons characters, but the only emoji option on iOS for like five years was the yellow-shaded cartoon face. It's still the default skin tone in most emoji sets. https://emojipedia.org/emoji-1.0/ https://emojipedia.org/emoji-1.0/
    - cpmsmith 5y ago
      The cartoon faces have always been yellow, but the human ones, e.g. hands or gendered faces, were not until 2015 (on iOS). https://emojipedia.org/apple/iphone-os-2.2/ https://emojipedia.org/apple/iphone-os-2.2/ There was a lot of discourse about it at the time. https://www.fastcompany.com/3016256/are-emojis-racist https://www.fastcompany.com/3016256/are-emojis-racist
beenBoutIT 5y ago
Facebook: We don't just tolerate bad design we celebrate it!

seoulmetro 5y ago

Scared of being left out of a trend.