Make it joyful: How to build products that make people smile

Have you ever encountered a moment that made you smile inadvertently during a completely mundane task? You experienced joy and I believe we can add more of these moments to our software.

We spend more time interacting with software than ever before. Yet in our relentless pursuit of efficiency, we've designed the humanity out of our products. We have automated away the very moments that make people feel something. What if it didn't have to be this way?

The designer William Morris once said "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." But I think, why not both. Why can't we have beautiful and functional items in our homes? Why can't we apply the same philosophy to software?

In software, the equivalent is joy, and there's science behind why it matters. This is not forced fun, because the moment delight becomes a checkbox it loses its magic entirely. I'm talking about those small, unexpected moments that catch you off guard mid-task. The kind that bypass your rational brain entirely and make you smile unexpectedly.

I'll take you on a guided tour of joy through the things we can see, the things we interact with, and the things that connect with our core identities. I'll show you how teams are already embedding joy into their products in ways that are surprising, playful, and deeply human. From unexpectedly sassy notifications to a gym app that celebrates lifting the weight of 34 sheep, I hope to leave you inspired to add your own moments of joy to your software.

As quality professionals, we put users at the heart of everything we do. This talk is an invitation to take that ethos one step further, from building software that serves people, to building software that delights them. You'll leave with a practical playbook for identifying where joy belongs in your own product and how to make the case for it within your team.

Because we're not just building software. We're building environments people live in. Shouldn't those environments help people thrive?

What you’ll learn

• The science of joy, how it differs from happiness and why you should care about joy in your software
• Be inspired by how others add joy into their software and the impact this has on their users
• Learn how to add joy into your software so that you can improve the experience of your users