Enlarged words make text messages look clearer but less premium, by Do-hyeong and EunJin.

Do-hyeong Kim, Suhong Ju and EunJin Kim presented their work entitled, “The effects of enlarged words in text messages: Look clearer, but less premium: at the 10th International Conference on Design & Emotion in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The study explored the emotional characteristics of enlarged words in text messages. The results showed that enlarging the text size make the message look clearer but less premium compared to normal size of texts. This research had been carried out as a term project of ID512 Research Methodology class in Fall semester instructed by Prof. Suk.

Abstract

This study explored the effects of enlarged words in text messages on receivers°Ø affective judgment of the contents. In order empirically to investigate the effects, we conducted two experiments: One was a preliminary study to observe general user responses to enlarged text messages, and the other one was a survey to measure emotional responses of users when contexts of text messaging were specified. Based on the results, we revealed positive and negative aspects of using enlarging words as a nonverbal cue in text message communication.

Full text in Proceeding of D&E 2016