This is how we used Emojis 😂 to enhance our Qlik Sense app

[ArturoMuñoz]

SPOILER ALERT:  I know is hard to believe, but this is NOT a blog post about the VIRUS (I won't even mention it). I figured we all needed to detox a little bit with some fun.

We all know that a raw string or table with numbers isn't it the easiest thing to digest, that's why companies like Qlik exists in the first place, and that's why people need charts to help individuals to understand the numbers better.

The same principle is also true about words, the old "a picture is worth a thousand words" reflects that fact.  Emojis are a special set of images that can surely help you to say more with less. The use of pictographs can help to reduce the time a user needs to understand a chart and for sure they can increase the user experience among all demographics.

Use case for emojis

Emojis are particularly useful to be used as icons, to represent concepts that otherwise would require a number of words. 

Last September we launched a new app to celebrate the 2019 Rugby WorldCup in Japan. We used some emojis to improve the experience of two charts. 

Teams Ranking distribution chart includes medal emojis as replacement for labels for the reference lines. Each line helps to identify team's final position in the tournament history. 

The Tournament Medals table includes only the top 3 teams for each tournament year and the medal pictogram helps to visually understand the final position within each tournament. 

Check it live here:

https://webapps.qlik.com/rugby-world-championship/index.html#/historical

Where can emojis be used in Qlik Sense?

Everywhere, they are just as any other character, so you can use it on labels but also as part of the load script, expressions and virtually anywhere where you can use text.

Load script implementation example:

Table:
LOAD
TeamFinalPlacement,
if(TeamFinalPlacement=1,'🥇', if(TeamFinalPlacement=2, '🥈', if(TeamFinalPlacement=3,'🥉',''))) as Medal,
Tournament
From somewhere;

What are the emoji limitations?

Limitations depends in the device used to explore the Qlik Sense app. Windows supports emoji with some limitations starting with Windows 7, check the complete list here: http://caniemoji.com/

Also please be aware that the emoji you are using might not look like exactly as you see it for all the users depending on the device used to explore the Qlik Sense app. Full emoji list here: https://www.unicode.org/emoji/charts/full-emoji-list.html

I hope you enjoy it, and please share with us how (if) are you using emojis in your apps.

Arturo (@arturoqv)

Related topics:

https://community.qlik.com/t5/Qlik-Design-Blog/Replacing-images-with-Geometric-Shapes-as-visual-cues...