--- title: "EmoLog: Logging Hard-to-Name Feelings" description: "EmoLog turns hard-to-name feelings into a navigable coordinate system of 150+ original hand-drawn faces, so people can log emotions without forcing a label." url: https://dasto.app/portfolio/en/clarity/emolog/ language: en alternate_zh: https://dasto.app/portfolio/clarity/emolog/ author: "Daco Hsieh 謝明達" published: 2026-07-06 updated: 2026-10-28 --- # EmoLog: Logging Hard-to-Name Feelings > EmoLog turns hard-to-name feelings into a navigable coordinate system of 150+ original hand-drawn faces, so people can log emotions without forcing a label. - **Specimen**: EmoLog - **Category**: Product Design / Emotion Logging / Visual System - **Platform**: iOS / Android - **Core Idea**: Emotion coordinates instead of forced naming - **Assets**: 150+ original abstract emotion illustrations - **Role**: Solo Product Creator / Illustration / UX / UI / Frontend / Launch [▶ EmoLog intro video](https://www.youtube.com/embed/fYSnqOZjZZw) *Video 1 — This intro video clarifies EmoLog’s core interaction: instead of naming a feeling first, users swipe until they find its position.* EmoLog is one of my clearest examples of turning an abstract inner state into a usable product. The problem I wanted to solve was not simply “how to log a mood,” but what a product can do when someone clearly feels something yet cannot name it. That is why I did not start from emotion lists or labels. Instead, I built a two-dimensional coordinate system using two more intuitive axes: bright vs. down and calm vs. intense. Users do not begin by choosing a word. They begin by moving through emotional space. ![EmoLog explore screen](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/emolog-screen-explore-O1QmJ5t_.webp) *Figure 1 — The explore screen turns emotion selection into a spatial gesture. Users move through faces and background colors instead of being forced into verbal categorization first.* That decision matters because it reframes emotion from a language problem into a position problem. Many people do not lack feelings. They lack confidence about which word to choose. Swiping makes it easier to say, at minimum, “I am not exactly happy, but I am not overwhelmed either.” Another major strength is that I did not rely on standard emoji or generic iconography. I drew my own semi-abstract faces. Their job is not to be literal. Their job is to give people enough ambiguity to project themselves into the image. ![Digital Fatigue illustration](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/emolog-digital-fatigue-X9pM1aSC.webp) ![AI Anxiety illustration](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/emolog-ai-anxiety-B2rqzEM8.webp) ![FOMO illustration](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/emolog-fomo-DW9R8kX4.webp) *Figure 2 — These faces capture EmoLog’s visual language: not cute, not standardized, but expressive enough to hold contradiction, unease, and mixed feelings.* This is not just a collection of artworks. It is an emotion-recognition interface. Every face has to remain distinct, correspond to a coordinate region, work with the shifting background palette, and still feel like empathy rather than diagnosis. Once users find the right face, the logging flow stays intentionally light. They can write a line, or not. They can keep only the face and coordinates, or attach time and weather too. The goal is reducing friction, because if logging starts to feel like diary homework, many people will stop. ![EmoLog share card](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/emolog-screen-share-card-BeVrYmQQ.webp) *Figure 3 — The share card is a particularly product-driven decision. It reframes a private feeling as a small emotional specimen card that can be passed along without requiring full self-exposure.* That thinking is closely related to my iHealth health-visual work: I care not only about clarity, but also about memorability and shareability. EmoLog’s share card matters because it gives the product a built-in distribution behavior. I also structured review in two different ways: Calendar for revisiting a specific day, and Distribution for observing emotional patterns as a landscape rather than a line chart. Again, this is about translating abstraction into a more understandable visual system. ![EmoLog calendar](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/emolog-screen-calendar-B9IWWXGU.webp) ![EmoLog distribution chart](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/emolog-screen-distribution-My79A2-L.webp) *Figure 4 — Calendar and Distribution form the second layer of the product: logging is not just for the moment, but for later self-understanding through multiple views.* Another choice I cared deeply about was lowering psychological cost: no account required by default, local-first data storage, and no paywall around the core experience. This is a companion product, so the product should not burden people before it helps them. ![EmoLog onboarding](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/emolog-screen-onboarding-X6p8mTYN.webp) ![EmoLog settings](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/emolog-screen-settings-DNI9p4vz.webp) ![EmoLog backup and restore](https://dasto.app/portfolio/assets/emolog-screen-backup-D4MrixSJ.webp) *Figure 5 — The onboarding, settings, and backup screens complete another important layer of the product: not just the emotion-logging flow itself, but how privacy, reminders, and device continuity were organized into something sustainable to use.* EmoLog did not stop at “art for emotions.” I translated it into coordinates, gestures, faces, background color logic, logging, sharing, calendar review, distribution views, and storage rules until it became a real product. > EmoLog does not begin by forcing users to name a feeling. > > It begins by helping them find a face and a position where that feeling can first be held. > Its public-facing support and how-to pages are already live and can extend this case study externally. https://dasto.app/emolog/ ## Part of - [How I Make Complex Things Clear: iHealth](https://dasto.app/portfolio/en/clarity/) --- Author: Daco Hsieh 謝明達 · Contact: enodaco@gmail.com · Portfolio home: https://dasto.app/portfolio/en/ · 中文版: https://dasto.app/portfolio/clarity/emolog/