How Do You Feel? – Emotion Indicator System

This project is a token-and-tube based emotion indicator, designed to help kids express how they feel — without needing to talk about it.
It’s made for boarding schools or group homes where children live under supervision and may find it hard to share their emotions verbally.

Concept

The system uses three color-coded tubes:
🟢 Green – Happy
🟡 Yellow – Neutral
🟠 Orange – Angry / Sad

Each child receives a few tokens each day and drops one in the tube that matches their current mood.
This gives supervisors a quick, visual way to understand how the group is feeling — especially useful during shift changes, when new supervisors take over.

Features

3 tubes (Green, Yellow, Orange)

Wall-mountable system

Mounting distance: approximately 24 cm between the top of the bottom wall mount and the bottom of the top wall mount

Tubes sit on the bottom mount and click into place on the top mount — secure but easy to remove for emptying

Each tube supports up to 100 tokens

Includes 100 tokens total (print the 25-token plate 4x)

Smileys can be glued in place on the circles of the top mount

No red color used – red can be perceived as a stress color (in the photo, one tube is still red; it’s being replaced with orange)

Optional logo or text engraving (on top mount and/or tokens)

Ideal for groups of around 20 kids (each gets 5 tokens per day)

The system helps supervisors adapt plans, routines, or activities based on the group’s overall mood and atmosphere.

Printing Details

Total print time: ~28 hours for the complete set

Only the smileys are multicolor prints by default

When adding a logo or text, plates 2 and 3 (top mount and tokens) can also be printed in multicolor

Print the top and bottom wall mounts separately

The tubes sit on the bottom mount and click into place on the top mount

Add your school or organization logo to personalize the design

If needed, you can print two tubes on one plate (on A1 or larger printers).
Be sure to enable “Print per object” mode instead of layer-by-layer printing to reduce waste.

Print Info

Supports: No

Filament: PLA

Nozzle: 0.4 mm

Multicolor:

Default: only Plate 1 (smileys)

Optional: Plates 2 & 3 if using a custom logo or text

Recommended Printers: A1 or larger for efficient multi-tube printing

Story Behind the Design

This idea came from my brother-in-law, who works with kids in a boarding school.
He wanted a simple, tangible way for children to express emotions — so I turned his idea into a real, 3D-printable system.

(Note: In the example photos, the original school logo and token engravings have been removed for privacy.)