Continuous joy

I've been thinking about joy again, especially after watching Clare Norman's Make it joyful: How to build products that make people smile talk.

First up, seeing her on stage, simply radiates joy! How can you not smile whilst looking at this photo? 😊

Do give it watch. I don't want to give away too many spoilers, but I can't stop thinking about rounding corners now. Across the MoTaverse, I am now looking at what things we can make rounder or curvy. Just thinking about it brings joy, and that's kind of funny within itself.

Truth be told, we've been doubling down on joy in the MoTaverse. It's a big reason we accepted Clare's talk. One phrase that stuck with me a while back is 'creativity replaces anxiety'. Something I personally discovered whilst experiencing a particularly anxious time in my life. One thing I tried to help me was getting a bit creative. Of course it wasn't a complete fix, but I did feel like it helped.

Creativity is not joy, but it can certainly bring more joy into our life. And there can be so much to be joyful about.

Clare mentioned how joy works on three levels, in relation to Don Norman’s Emotional Design:

Visceral: how it looks and feels. 

Example: Rounded corners, or the Co-op member card that shimmers as you tilt your phone.

Behavioural: feedback and flow. 
Example: Slack’s sarcastic message when you sit in a huddle alone.

Reflective: identity and values. 
Example: Trainline showing the CO2 you saved, or the Co-op Funeralcare form acknowledging that sex and gender may differ.

These three examples are how the user sees and feels the joy. My recent experience of joy and creativity is from the perspective of how we can inject joy into how we build. We want to output joy, but we also want to experience joy when we build our products

For me this has shown up in things like:

So, when thinking about joy, to me it is now essential. It's how we operate. It's how we build. We sneak it in. It most definitely keeps us MoTivated. We've never had so much fun, and it keeps us going through the slog of changing the world. :) We're so serious about our work that we have to make it joyful because the truth is, that the more creative and fun we inject into our work, the more ideas we spark.

And of course, in tech speak, joy should not just be a one off, it should be continuous, and shifted left wherever possible. We need continuous joy to build beautiful quality products.

Could joy be your competitive advantage? I think so, it's a signal of care.