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I'm reprogramming a really bad chat software and I'm don't know how I can adapt huge so called "smileys" from that old chat without causing a bad user experience?

Because I think the space between the first and the second line of text is too big.

Example

User1: Funny?

User2: That's funny! Huge "smileys"

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3 Answers

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Why do you think its a bad user experience, Just because you feel the alignment between the lines gets disturbed doesnt mean its a poor user experience. Check with your user base and find out if they find these smileys useful and then make the decision. What might seem as a irrelevant and bad add-on might not be a bad user experience for users.

A quick google search for MSN emiticons (which are similar to the smileys you mentioned) shows up a lot of interest in them so by removing them you might be affecting a huge user base

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No I don't want to remove them! I just want to find a better way to implement them. – mic Jan 8 at 20:07
@mic What do you mean by 'a better way to implement them'? Are you after some coding guidelines? – JonW♦ Jan 8 at 20:26
@JonW I mean "a better way to implement them" so that there's not such a big gap between the two chat-messages. But if it's really true that the users don't care about the gap, then I'll just do it like that but I don't think that the users don't care about it. – mic Jan 8 at 21:20
@mic "I don't think that the users don't care about it". What are you basing this on? It sounds like you may need to do some studies or at least poll your userbase. – Tims Jan 8 at 22:55
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i agree with mervin. Something else to consider is giving the user a choice between small/normal sized smilies or large ones. Giving them the choice puts the look and feel of the chat in their hands. in my opinion giving the user alternatives is a good thing.

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Why not have emoticons in a smaller separate frame in the window, or maybe as a pop up. Then you wouldn't really have worry about size and wouldn't alienate an existing, possibly, loyal user base.

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