Context

Kinetic Typography(KT) makes use of animation and dynamic changing of fonts to express emotion and characters. When used purposely, it can add emotive content to the statements as well as to direct readers' attention.

In this project, I explored the use of KT in instant messaging(IM). I believe KT has lots of potential here since in instant messaging people usually communicate emotive contents rather than facts. The use of KT can serve the needs that cannot be fullfiled by static emoticons. Also, the liveliness offered by KT can make the overall IM experience a more engaging one.

Readers who are interested in learning more about KT can go to here.

The Application

Download - unzip the file. Run according to the README in the unzipped folder.

Presentation - I prepared a presentation of Kinetic Typography in IM for my professional speaking class.

Disco is a instant messaging client implemented in Java. It is complient to the AIM protocol so users can use Disco to communiate with people using AIM client.

Disco client interface

A "yelling" effect is applied to the text. User can directly tag (i.e. ) the text, or select a tag from the drop-down box. Also, the editor has different highlights for different tags (e.g. pink for yell), and a statement can have multiple tags applied to it.

User of AIM conventional client can still use direct tagging to attach an "emotion icon" (e.g. for yell) to a text, then send it to a Disco client for playback.

Below are more screenshots to demonstrate the functionality of Disco

Static history is available by expanding the History Log Button

Button indicates the number of unanswered message(s). Pressing on it replays the unanswered, animated messages

Preview tabbed pane allows user to preview the message before sending it off

History can be played back dynamically