EMO+: a board game for shared emotional understanding
EMO+ is a co-participatory board game developed by Microsoft AI product designer Jeni (Jieni) Huang and creative collaborator Xingxue Wang. Originally designed to support autistic adults in interpreting and expressing emotions, the game has since evolved into a broader tool for fostering emotional understanding among individuals with differing communication styles. The project explores how emotional expression can be made tangible through physical interaction and shared gameplay.
At the core of EMO+ is an adapted version of the ‘fuzzy atmosfield’ model, originally developed in the field of human-robot interaction. This three-dimensional framework maps social atmosphere along three emotional axes: Friendly–Hostile, Lively–Calm, and Casual–Formal. The team translated this model into a game structure by dividing the emotional spectrum into eight spatial zones, each represented by a cube corresponding to a specific emotional climate defined by intersecting axes.
all images courtesy of Jeni (Jieni) Huang and Xingxue Wang
turning emotional expression into a shared, tactile experience
The game structure underpins two key modes of play: Game 1: Storytelling, and Game 2: Conflict Analysis. In Storytelling, players co-develop narratives using a series of emotion and prompt cards. Emotional shifts are placed along a timeline, helping participants map and interpret emotional progressions collaboratively. In Conflict Analysis, participants revisit past interpersonal disagreements using movement cards to place themselves and others within the emotional model’s grid. Through guided play, participants explore how emotional positions shift, with the goal of reaching a shared understanding of differing perspectives.
EMO+ board game by creative duo Jeni (Jieni) Huang and Xingxue Wang, employs visual, spatial, and tactile elements to translate emotional complexity into more accessible forms. It avoids clinical or digital mediation, instead offering a low-cost, analog format that supports group interaction. The physicality of the design serves to externalize internal states, enabling players to interpret emotions as positional data within a structured framework. By integrating social modeling with game design, EMO+ positions emotional communication as a shared, learnable experience, emphasizing mutual interpretation and adaptive understanding. The project has received recognition for its contribution to inclusive design practices and its potential applications across educational, therapeutic, and community contexts.
the game includes two sets of pieces, six movement cards that represent different emotional tones, and a set of item cards
players co-create a narrative using a combination of prompts and emotion cards
using the Atmosfield framework to translate abstract emotions into tangible spatial forms
