In 2025, Meta brought Poke back into the Facebook app — reviving one of the platform’s most recognizable and playful interactions.
As part of the relaunch, I redesigned the Poke icon to align with Facebook’s evolving Nucleus iconography system while preserving the familiarity of the original gesture.
While the Like icon represents affirmation and approval, Poke carries a different kind of energy — playful, unexpected, and social.
The challenge was to evolve the gesture into a cleaner and more expressive form while preserving the personality users already recognized instinctively.
The evolution focused on simplifying the gesture without losing the playful social energy that made Poke iconic in the first place.
Exploration Process
Through dozens of explorations, the icon evolved from a close interpretation of the original gesture into a cleaner and more scalable system-ready form.
The process balanced:
familiarity
simplification
recognizability
expression
Refining the Gesture
Even subtle changes dramatically shifted how the icon felt emotionally.
The redesign focused on refining:
silhouette clarity
hand proportions
curve tension
optical balance
scalability across surfaces
Every adjustment influenced how playful, friendly, or dynamic the gesture appeared.
Anatomy of the Icon
The icon was rebuilt through a series of optical refinements that improved readability and consistency within the broader Facebook visual language.
Special attention was placed on:
sleeve proportions
fingertip curvature
knuckle rhythm
negative space
stroke consistency
Build for Nucleus
The final icon was designed as part of Facebook’s evolving Nucleus iconography system, helping create better consistency across the product ecosystem while maintaining the unique personality of Poke.
The relaunch also introduced:
profile-level poke actions
dedicated poke surfaces
emoji variations
streak-inspired interactions
Poke icon and emoji in situ
A familiar gesture, refined for a new generation of Facebook.
Project Credits
Role
Visual Design / Iconography Systems
Focus Areas
Icon exploration, system integration, responsive behavior, geometric refinement, interaction consistency
Part of
Nucleus — Facebook’s new iconography system (launched Fall 2024)