Getting Started with Product Delight
The three levels of Delight
Take a moment and think about a tech product that you really enjoyed using. Not one that you felt compelled to use, like some social network app, but one that sparked some joy after you use it to accomplish something.
You may have formed an emotional connection with the product, and that wasn’t by accident. The product people who created that product most likely approached their work through a product delight lens.
What is Product Delight?
Imagine a world in which products do only the bare minimum: meeting users’ needs in the most functional, mechanical way. They work, yes, but they’re forgettable. No spark, no emotional pull.
Now imagine the opposite: a beautifully engineered product that fails to meet real user needs. No matter how impressive the design or technology is, if it doesn’t serve a meaningful purpose, it leaves users frustrated and disconnected.
While the second scenario is clearly worse, the first scenario isn’t inspiring either. Because today, solving problems isn’t enough. What makes a product truly memorable is its ability to create an emotional connection, to make users feel understood, empowered, even delighted.
The Three Types of Delight
When you first heard the term “product delight,” you might have imagined a tech product with a sleek interface, vibrant design, or a playful Easter egg.
In his book, Designing for Emotion, Aarron Walter refers to these elements as “surface delight,” and that’s often what people think of when they hear the word “delight.”
However, delight goes deeper than aesthetics. There are three types of delight, each playing a different role in shaping user experiences. Understanding all three helps us intentionally incorporate delight into products.
Surface Delight
Surface delight is purely visual or interactive, with polished user interfaces, animations, or small moments of surprise. While these elements can make a product feel more engaging, they don’t help users accomplish goals or fulfill deeper needs.
It’s the most common type of delight because it requires little understanding of user behavior beyond making interactions feel enjoyable.
Apple Watch Celebration
Every New Year’s Eve, the Apple Watch delivers a small celebratory moment. As the clock strikes midnight, a burst of fireworks lights up the screen, marking the occasion. A notification invites the user to tap and replay the animation.
Similarly, on my birthday, I received a “Happy Birthday Nesrine” message. When I tapped it, colorful balloons floated across the screen, adding a festive touch.
Delightful? Yes. These interactions don’t help me achieve a goal or solve a problem, but they make the user smile and foster connections between the user and the product.
Happy Birthday Nesrine
Deep Delight
Deep delight happens when a product solves a functional need, while simultaneously fulfilling an emotional need. Unlike surface delight, which adds purely emotional touches such as humor, animation, or charm, deep delight emerges from a powerful combination: usefulness and emotional connection. It results from a product feature that works reliably, but also makes the user feel understood, empowered, and cared for. A deeply delightful product feels intuitive, like a thoughtful assistant who anticipates needs and delivers just the right thing at the right time. Achieving this level of delight is challenging because it demands a deep understanding of users’ goals, pain points, and emotional drivers. It’s not just about what users can do, but how naturally, effortlessly, and meaningfully they do it.
Gmail Smart Compose
A great example of deep delight is Gmail Smart Compose. As you type an email, Smart Compose quietly predicts your next words, offering suggestions that are relevant and easy to accept or ignore. Functionally, it boosts productivity by saving time and reducing repetitive typing. But emotionally, it eases cognitive load, builds confidence in communication, and makes writing feel smoother and more natural. This is a deep delight in action, a feature that helps with a clear task while making the experience feel effortless, intuitive, and reassuring.
Low Delight
Low delight describes products that help users accomplish something, but can’t create an emotional connection.
These products can be functional, reliable, and usable.
Think about a feature such as Skip in Spotify. This is purely functional. It helps users move from one song to another but doesn’t create an emotional connection. No excitement. Users expect it to be there; it’s not a feature that sparks joy. It meets a need, but doesn’t exceed expectations. It organizes music, but doesn’t enhance the listening experience.
While this feature is necessary for usability, it doesn’t create a standout moment.
The Human Factor
Product delight makes tech products feel more human by enhancing the user's experience with a purpose through intuitive design, personalization, and aesthetic appeal. Here are a few ways to make your product feel more human:
Create deeper connections between users and your product with small, thoughtful interactions and features that evoke positive emotions, like surprise and joy.
Make the experience more personable with clear, friendly feedback and human-like interactions, such as conversational interfaces.
Foster a sense of community and belonging with empathy in design and support, gamification elements, and social features.
When you integrate these elements, you make your tech product emotionally resonant and human-centric, leading to greater user satisfaction and loyalty.
I’m Feeling Lucky
To get an idea of what this looks like in action, look no further than Google’s search landing page.
Google has been very frugal with their use of space on that page, but one thing they’ve kept there since 2001 is the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. The button is a shortcut that takes you directly to the first search result for your query.
When first introduced, the button was a simple way to save you time when you’re confident in your search query. It helped you accomplish something. Through some of the thoughtful interactions Google added in, the button quickly became known for its ability to take users to unexpected places. If you move your mouse cursor over the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button, the text changes to other options like "I'm feeling hungry" to find local restaurants or "I'm feeling wonderful" to show world wonders.
It is all about delighting users, and it’s apparently worth it.
Google cofounder Sergey Brin told public radio’s Marketplace that around one percent of all Google searches go through the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. Because the button takes users directly to the top search result, Google doesn’t get to show search ads on one percent of all its searches. That costs the company a lot of money in annual revenue.
So why does Google keep such a costly button around? Google exec Marissa Mayer said “It’s possible to become too dry, too corporate, too much about making money. I think what’s delightful about ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ is that it reminds you there are real people here.”
Whant to know more about product delight?
Want to attract and keep customers and users? When you build your product with delight in mind, you strengthen the emotional connection your customers and users have with your product. That results in higher customer retention and increases the likelihood that they’ll recommend your product to others.
I started this newsletter to help you incorporate delight into your product. In upcoming issues, I’ll share my experiences building delightful products at Google, Spotify and Microsoft and explain how you can do it too.
Subscribe today!