Emoji reactions have become essential for expressing tone and emotion online. In the Forum Classroom, students and instructors can use one of six reactions, which appear as colored emojis over the user’s video. Instructors can view a summary of all reactions at any given time.
These reactions are a crucial part of engagement, and improving them was a top request from students.
During class, reactions can be triggered via shortcuts or a menu. The reaction is then displayed temporarily in the corner of the user's video.
The Problem
How can we enhance reactions to boost engagement and help students express themselves better in class?
Research & Analytics
Looker analytics showed that 80% of reactions were “like,” “agree,” and “hand raise,” while “confused,” “dislike,” and “disagree” were rarely used.
I also found that wow/amazed/omg was the most requested feature for Forum, with over 200 upvotes, and interviewed 5 students and 6 instructors to better understand how reactions are (or aren’t used).
Interview Insights
All Instructors valued reactions as engagement feedback
7 out of 11 interviewees believed students avoided the “confused” reaction to avoid drawing attention
8 out of 11 found “disagree” too personal and aggressive
9 out of 11 felt that a “wow” reaction would help differentiate strong positive reactions from mere agreement
"Thumbs down is too aggressive. The classroom is supposed to be collaborative like “yes, and” but its more like "I completely disagree."
"Reactions are great because you can tell how alive a class is based on how many reactions there are. It shows people are listening & engaged."
“I often find myself wanting a lightbulb or aha reaction to express that something was really cool or changed my mind."
Quotes from user testing, each of which influenced the exploration and final designs.
Exploration
Design Goals
Redesign “confused” and “dislike” for more frequent use
Design an "aha" or "light bulb" emoji
Introduce a cohesive reaction set with clear distinctions
Ensure reactions work at different video sizes (e.g., 48px vs. 16px)
I redesigned the “wow” and “disagree” reactions, focusing on cohesive colors and styles, while updating the “agree” reaction for clarity. I also ensured the reactions worked well at different sizes (48px vs. 24px). The softer “disagree” aimed to make students more comfortable using it, allowing for nuanced expressions from “I disagree” to “Hmm… are you sure?”
A selection of many iterations of the agree, wow, and disagree reactions.
The Final Designs
The final designs included a simple animation, and new 'Agree', 'Disagree', and 'Wow' reactions. You can see them in action below.
Results & Feedback
Students loved using the new reactions in class. In the following weeks, reaction usage was up 17%, along with other student engagement trends.