Thread:Talk:MoodBar/Design/Emoticon states

Once a user has selected an emotion, are they allowed to change their selection? Direct manipulation interfaces such as this benefit greatly from allowing users to explore the features, so if not, I would recommend that they should be.

If indeed they should be, the gray and flat state of the emoticons that were not selected makes them look disabled. This would indicate to the user that their decision is final. Flattening a control's is commonly an indication of it being disabled. Additionally fading a control out (in this case lightening it) also is common in indicating it is disabled.

I would recommend not changing the non-selected emoticons, and providing a more distinctive selected state to compensate for the loss in contrast. Since color is a fairly short visual variable, something like size may be useful - such that the selected emoticon would appear larger when selected. You could also use an additional graphical element such as an outline to modify the shape of the selected item - shape is infinitely long visual variable so it's a good fit here.