The paper aims to study the influence of face contour shape on people's intention to use in Emoji design, and to provide theoretical support and reference for the activation of local cultural heritage in Wuhan. The participants were presented with eight Emojis with different emotional content and face contour shapes, and their empathy ability, perceived emotion intensity and usage intention were measured by questionnaire. This study verified the impact of Emoji face contour shape on people's perception of emotional intensity and usage intention. For the Hankou Water Tower Emoji in this study, compared with the inverted triangle, people have a stronger willingness to use the Emoji with a round face contour. Among them, perceived emotional intensity plays a mediating role between contour shape and usage intention, and people can perceive stronger emotion from Emoji with contour shape and emotion content consistent. Individual empathy has a significant moderating effect on the perception of emotional intensity. The enlightenment from the above research is that when designing Emojis with similar themes, the impact of face contour shape on emotional expression and usage intention should be considered to avoid ambiguity.