Sprinkle some joy: How to add joyful moments to your product

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful”

This is a quote by English textile designer William Morris who lived and designed in the late 1800s. But I think, why not both. Why can’t we have beautiful **and** functional items in our homes. I believe life is too short to be plain.

I genuinely believe that we can apply the same philosophy to software. One of the ways we can do this is by injecting joy into user journeys so that we build and maintain software that not only serves a purpose but brings joy to its users.

What it’s not
- Happiness - because I can’t solve that within a 25 minute talk!
- Part of the requirements or forced fun - because if it’s mandated, it’s not fun anymore

What it is
- Moments that uplift your mood
- Something that bypasses your ‘happiness’ judgement, it’s something that makes you smile instantly.

Imagine if you could take some of the monotony out of video calls. Maybe the endless staring at one’s own face could be interrupted by a short moment of joy. Someone at the messaging platform Slack thought about this. In the middle of a work call one day, navigating around the screen, I noticed a message that appeared when I hovered over my face: “You look nice today”. A little moment of joy in an otherwise fairly neutral setting.

In this talk I will share the science of joy, some examples of joyful software and some ways that you can sprinkle some joy into your user journeys because life is too short for plain software.