I believe designers can seek a higher purpose in solving a problem.
I created Joyful Design, a unique process that I have applied in 4 product launches so far. Joyful design is about novel approaches to problem-solving, detail-oriented work, consciously trying to be in the company of joyful people, and finding joy within.
The problems today
There is increasing evidence that technology can create anxiety, social media makes us envious, jealous, miserable, gives FOMO (fear of missing out), traps us in a filter bubble, smartphones disconnect our attention from the present, and reduce our sense of wellbeing. Stress, anxiety, disappointment, eyestrain, sleep disorders, depression, fear, social comparison, bullying, loneliness, and addiction are some of the emotions people experience while using technology products today.
When we undergo stress, our body pauses basic functions like digestion and healing to protect us from the situation. Continuous stress causes many physical and mental ailments and affects the quality of the end product design.
People work very hard in the office only to wait until 5 PM so that they can go back home and live their real life. Such a ‘forced labor’ mentality reduces happiness, health, and innovation.
Designers have used likes, reviews, testimonials, and gamification to empower users to make them happy. But this is not authentic happiness; Happiness is little about the product or tangibles. Happiness is abstract, is an experience, and is a long, compelling, and authentic story. There is a natural craving for authentic connections and positive experiences with products, people, and everything in our environment.
Can the design of our favorite website or an application make us happy? As designers, how can we make experiences with technology better?
Often we as designers need a way to get unstuck, become focused, and realize our true potential. We need processes to lead us from within, find our answers, and radiate the same to the outside world to build high-performance teams and healthier relationships.
We have seen aggressive marketing, forced messaging on screens and popups, no easy cancellation option, disregard for privacy online, leaving the user feeling helpless and loses interest in the product.
Happiness cannot be obtained through earning a lot of money, drug, or technological invention. A culture change is needed.
Happiness is a complex subject, difficult to quantify, and is very subjective.
Technology should give us a sense of purpose, joy, motivation, inspire happiness, and the connection needed to find solutions to current problems.
Can digital products be designed with trust, transparency, authenticity, a positive mindset, and empowerment - all elements of joy - so that these values are reflected in the end product?
The joyful design process combines design thinking, positive psychology, mindfulness, and cognitive behavioral therapy to improve innovation and happiness quotient in people and designs.
Joyful leadership
A leader embraces others as an equal. A leader knows that their actions can influence the world. A leader feels happy with other people’s happiness and thus is always joyful.
Motivation is infectious, and not being motivated is too. When there is a lack of motivation, it leads to a lack of trust, negative energy ripples, rumors, suspicion, insecurity, distraction, and the employees go into a self-protection mode.
Be an emotional leader. Emotion is energy in motion that, when used effectively, can transform a business. Anger is just one character less than danger.
Leadership is not management. Leaders inspire people to do what they do not know they can do than simply pushing people to do tasks they do not want to do.
Be committed to employees’ mental happiness. Happiness travels top-down in a corporation. Unless the topmost leader is happy from within, employees will not be happy. Be a good human manager.
Engage employees meaningfully. Motivation is a fleeting emotion and can come and go. Engagement stays for some time. Use conscious pause, conscious shock, and conscious direction to pull employees out of monotony and dullness.
A bully is not a leader. Build fearless teams such that anyone can raise their hand and say “I disagree”.
Take your work seriously, but joy can help lead to better results.
Everyone loves the small joys in life. Small joys in life make a big difference. Whoever you are, if you are given a small moment of joy, you appreciate it, you reciprocate it, and you feel nice about it. The joy a person derives from achieving a goal is just as important as their ability to achieve that goal. Research has suggested that positive affect can influence how cognitive material is organized and thus may influence creativity.
Be rich from inside with joy. It will motivate you. Feeling hopeful, having higher aspirations and goals, and having a meaning in life improves joy in life.
Human beings are social creatures, and we find joy when we are together. If office culture becomes friendly, happiness and productivity will increase.
Our environment, people we work with, and clients all have a certain vibe that influences our inner joy. Improve the vibe.
I acknowledge that joy cannot be forced into every product. Each product has a different purpose and a problem it is trying to solve. As designers, the least we can do is be grateful, mindful, and optimistic while creating good product experiences that are invisible.
Order, context, and organizing principles tend to suck the fun out of things sometimes. Add some quick novelty & unexpected delight to products. These fringe and ‘unnecessary’ ideas create emotions and engagement.
Infuse humanity in technology-driven products to create a positive reaction from users. Users react with moments of happiness when products seem to react, care, and recognize a bit like other humans or extensions of our own brains.
Sweat the details. Each small detail adds to a larger moment of joy. When users feel smart, creative, connected, and cared for, they express positive emotions by taking positive intended actions like making a purchase, downloading an app, consuming the message, become returning users.
Our thoughts become our reality. Look at the past with gratitude. Move past trauma and any unhappy experiences. Have pride in what you have overcome. Grow self-confidence and patience. Confidence is the result of not just doing something well but knowing you do something well. Focus on what you have and not what do you don't have. Operate from abundance. Operate from a base of love.
Happy people create happy products. These five simple things help you find joy in everything you do. 1- Free your heart from discord. 2- Free your mind from worries. 3- Live simply. 4- Give more. 5- Take less.
Design is giving. The giver gains more benefit and gains better health, happiness, connection, and open-mindedness. When designers see their act of design as giving their best to the end-user to make their lives better, it brings happiness to the designer.
Design is empathy. When we empathize with the users, we become less judgmental, less frustrated, and disappointed. Our patience is improved, and we can build better solutions.
As a designer, your state of mind is reflected in what you create. So keep stress out of mind. Try to give the best experience and value to the user more than what you expect from the user in return.
I believe we can make every product experience joyful, from creation to consumption.
Joy is the building block for having a fulfilling life. It makes products great, business and personal relationships succeed.
Joy is not a gadget or a screen. Joy comes from real-life experiences that can be represented on screen or used to make creation, selling, and consumption more authentic and lifelike.
Joy is everywhere, very simple but interconnected, and can be obtained through creating simple, authentic interactions in products that make connections either with the inner self or with others.
As designers, we love to talk about delightful experiences for the users, but that is a small part of the solution. It is mostly limited to providing small pleasures in digital experiences. Joy is a lot more than the visceral, behavioral, and reflective experience in ‘emotional design’ that Don Norman talks about. It is not just the outcome, but the entire design process and the state of mind of everyone involved, from the designer, engineer, and other team members, client, and the end-user.
Joyful design creates external environments that nurture inner joy and create inner environments of joy that spread the fragrance of joy to the outside world.
Joy is simply the filling between 2 tasks, time periods, thoughts, people, or experiences that make everything matter and Interesting.
Joy is not a life event. It is a habit. It takes regular effort to be joyful. Joyfulness is a mix of how satisfied we are with our life, work, and purpose; and how good we feel every day. We have the ability to control how we feel, and through constant effort, we have the potential to create a more fulfilling life or product.
"I feel these three should come together for an excellent story to emerge.
Love – The fundamental truth of the heart.
Beauty – The aesthetics of everything.
Joy – Turning inwards towards positivity.
The combination of these three is called 'Creative Intelligence.' So, in Artificial Intelligence, love, beauty, and joy are things machines cannot do. Creative Intelligence is our human superpower.”
The X-Interviews | The Art of Storytelling, Himanshu Bharadwaj on Joyfulness and Storytelling
Feedback from Industry leaders
This article is one of the most insightful and inspiring articles I’ve read in my career: It’s an operating system for designers. I’m grateful for how it surfaces and validates so many aspects of my approach to Design and life. I’m even more grateful for how much it offers that will benefit me professionally and personally. Thank you Himanshu!
Paul Fox, UX leader Google. Ex. Executive Director JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Himanshu is rooted in strong human values, in the pursuit of happiness. He loves harmony and peace and is moved by kindness. The child in him is always there. So he connects with the idle joys of childhood. The world needs people like Himanshu. Helping the world earn money through joy, creativity, and innovation. Aware of the amoral power of Design and taking a conscious decision to make the world a better place through Design.