3 standing pillars
An image of 3 pillars from digital deepak

Three pillars of user experience delight

Richard Mann
Bootcamp
Published in
5 min readJan 9, 2023

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To understand the multiple types of delight, consider Don Norman’s three levels of emotional processing (visceral, behavioral, and reflective), which he describes in his book Emotional Design.

An image of 2005. Emotional Design book written by Don Norman
image of 2005. Emotional Design book written by Don Norman from getabstract.com

At each of these stages, one can experience delight. These levels serve as pillars for a complete, strong, multi-dimensional approach to creating for delight.

Visceral delight

Visceral delight is the joyful feeling that you feel very deeply and find it difficult to control or ignore, and that feeling is not the result of thought.

Designs may be enjoyable on a visceral level: that is, they could have characteristics that, instinctively stimulate pleasurable impact. Some studies, for example, reveal that individuals respond favorably when presented with photos containing natural components (e.g., mountains, trees, water) compared to images or photographs of urban environments.

Natural Environment vs Urban Environment

While these photos have little to do with workflow design or usability, they do demonstrate the importance of aesthetics and visual design in positive impression and delight.

Behavioral delight

Behavioral delight is the pleasure that people feel when they interact with something and it works really well. For example, if you’re playing a game and the controls feel really smooth and easy to use, that’s behavioral delight or if you’re using a phone app and it’s really quick and responsive, that’s behavioral delight too. Basically, it’s when something works really well and it makes you happy.

Designs may also be pleasurable on a behavioral level. If a task was particularly easy to accomplish compared to the user’s expectations, that experience may have a favorable impact on the product — the user may be more likely to recommend the product to a friend and become a returning user, even if the cause has little to do with aesthetics. To give an illustration, everyone has a favorite pair (or pairs) of shoes.

While style does play a factor in whether you would wear the shoes, it is more certain that the pair is your favorite since it is both fashionable and comfortable. Even if you owned the most fashionable, high-end designer shoes, if they are uncomfortable for more than 10 minutes, you are unlikely to wear them again. The same is true with interfaces. A good experience demands more than a few pleasant visuals.

A comparison between an uncomfortable and a comfortable shoe both are fashionable
A comparison between an uncomfortable and a comfortable shoe, both are fashionable.

Reflective delight

Reflective delight is the feeling of happiness or pleasure that you get after you have had an experience. It is the feeling that you get when you think back on something and it makes you feel good. For example, if you went on a really fun vacation with your family, you might feel reflective delight when you think back on all the fun activities you did and how much you enjoyed spending time with your loved ones. Reflective delight is different from the other types of delight (visceral and behavioral) because it doesn’t happen in the moment, it happens after the experience is over. It’s like a happy memory that you can hold onto and feel good about.

So a design may be enjoyable on a reflective level, which means that it can appeal to a person’s sense of self, personal values, and goals.
Imagine you are trying to choose between two houses to live in. Both houses have beautiful views of a lake and they both have lots of space and storage, which makes them easy to use. But one of the houses is made with materials that are good for the environment, and the other one is not.

If you care about the environment, you might choose the house that is made with eco-friendly materials because it matches your values and goals. But if you care more about things like durability and how long the materials will last, you might choose the other house. Both of these options are appealing to you because they match who you are as a person and what you care about. This is called reflective delight.

The Key to long-term delight.

Each of the three delight pillars — visceral, behavioral, and reflective — connects to various parts of an experience: first impression, ease of use, and capacity to fit with consumers’ objectives. Unfortunately, designers sometimes chase “delight” by accidentally focusing on simply one or two of these pillars, rather than all three, resulting in a mediocre experience.

A design, for example, may have a fantastic first impression and emotionally compelling copy yet be difficult to use. Alternatively, a useful design may be thoroughly aligned with the user’s goals but fall short aesthetically. In other words, a design may attain some delight with UI decorations, but it will fall short of achieving permanent delight if one of these pillars is neglected. This is related to the negativity bias, in which individuals tend to recall the negative more than the positive.

It is important to remember that even the best designs cannot please everyone, and as the expression goes, “you can’t please everyone.” Life circumstances, negative outcomes, previous experiences, and expectations all influence how individuals feel delight and whether they may be happy on any particular day. Forcing delight when it isn’t appropriate — without taking into account the users’ present emotional state — will result not just in a lack of delight, but also in frustration, rage, or even disgust.

For example, if a consumer is calling to report a case of identity theft or credit card fraud, it would not be appropriate to loop a lighthearted, energetic song while they are on hold waiting to speak with a representative. To quote from the article, “You cannot impose joy”. Instead of putting the consumer on hold, a more compassionate way may be to not put the user on hold at all and give a call-back option.

Ironically, the secret to long-term delight is to search for opportunities to meet the user wherever they are in their emotional journey rather than continually looking for possibilities to excite or entertain the user.

In summary, if you want your consumers to feel real, long-lasting delight, don’t even consider delight. Consider why you’re designing that interface in the first place: what significant effect can you create for your users, and how can you do it in the shortest amount of time? Then, conduct appropriate research to determine whether you are on the right track.

Learn more about user delight.

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Thanks for reading! If you want to collaborate, talk about product design, give some suggestions or just want to say hello, email me mannrichard6266@gmail.com or connect via LinkedIn.

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Bootcamp
Bootcamp

Published in Bootcamp

From idea to product, one lesson at a time. Bootcamp is a collection of resources and opinion pieces about UX, UI, and Product. To submit your story: https://tinyurl.com/bootspub1

Richard Mann
Richard Mann

Written by Richard Mann

Experienced brand and user experience designer driven to create intuitive and seamless digital experiences that drive engagement and meet the needs of users.

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