Design hack: 10 joy-inducing aesthetics you should know | Ingrid Fetell Lee | Big Think

Design hack: 10 joy-inducing aesthetics you should know
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Joy and happiness are often used synonymously, but designer Ingrid Fetell Lee argues that there is an important distinction between the two: time. Happiness is something that measures how good we feel over time, while joy is about feeling good in the moment.
Noticing visual and sensorial patterns in the things that brought people joy, Lee was able to identify 10 ""aesthetics"": abundance, harmony, energy, freedom, play, surprise, transcendence, magic, renewal, and celebration.
In this video, we learn more about each aesthetic and why focusing on joyful moments is the key to getting the most out of life.
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INGRID FETELL LEE:
Ingrid Fetell Lee is a former Design Director at global innovation firm IDEO and founder of the blog The Aesthetics of Joy, a leading resource in the field of emotional design.
With over a decade of experience in design and branding, she holds an MA in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute and a BA in English and Creative Writing from Princeton University.
Check Ingrid Fetell Lee's latest book Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness at amzn.to/39ZgXm4
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TRANSCRIPT:
INGRID FETELL LEE: I think happiness and joy often get confused, especially in popular culture, and we often hear the words joy and happiness and positivity kind of all get mixed up. But happiness is something that psychologists measure over time. So it's more of a conscience appraisal of how good our life is and it often includes a range of different factors. How good we feel about our work or the quality of our relationships or whether we feel like we have a sense of purpose. All of those things go into our feeling of happiness. And it can be kind of complicated. Sometimes we don't even know if we feel happy. Whereas joy is a lot simpler and more immediate. So a way that I define joy and a lot of psychologists define joy as an intense momentary experience of positive emotion. And the way that we measure that is through actual physical expression. So smiling, laughing and the feeling of wanting to jump up and down. These are some of the different ways that psychologists measure joy. So whereas happiness is something that measures how good we feel over time, joy is about feeling good in the moment.
I'm going to talk through the ten different aesthetics of joy and as I talk about these you may find that some of them sound really familiar to you. When I started asking people about the things that brought them joy and I started hearing certain things over and over again. I noticed that there were certain visual and sensorial patterns in the things that emerged. So these ten aesthetics of joy each one is one of those patterns. And they connect the physical world around us to the emotional world within us.
Abundance is the kid in a candy store aesthetic. So we often say that when we feel a sense of joy it's like our cup runneth over. It's almost like the feeling is so good it sort of bursts out beyond the boundaries of our bodies. And that feeling of abundance also ties to a feeling of abundance in our surroundings. So when our ancestors were sort of roaming the savannahs and looking for good places to settle often it was a sense of lushness in their surroundings, a sense of abundance that told them that this would be a good and a safe place to be. And so we still rely on a sense of abundance which we can find in things like polka dots and stripes and multicolor or rainbow color palettes. And those things give us this feeling of abundance.
If you're someone who finds joy in a really well organized closet or in a collection of things that are arranged neatly, harmony is the aesthetic for you. And this is the aesthetic of balance and symmetry and pattern. And it comes from the fact that seeing order in the world around us often gives us a sense of joy and calm. It lets our brains relax because we know that we can spot threats or opportunities because the rest of the world is orderly and organized around us.
Energy is the aesthetic of color and light and it explains why we have an innate attraction...
Read the full transcript at bigthink.com/videos/joy-aesth...

[@bigthink]

If you liked Ingrid Fetell Lee take on Joy & Happiness, we think you'll dig her stance on Minimalism: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fGSzgH-FgpWcbrs

[@capturedglance]

you need to remove the fucking get smarter faster dialogue at the end of these videos for people to not be bombarded with that shit when theyre trying to let the video's content sink in at the end

[@josnad01]

Abundance - such as polka dots, the use of stripes Harmony - order and predictability Energy - bright colour and light Freedom - being let loose, having space around ourselves Roundness - sense of safety and playfulness Surprise - calls our attention Transcendence - Things that float and fly e.g. treehouses, balloons Magic - things that feel beyond the mundane e.g. fireflies, the oil swirl in a bubble Renewal - the feeling of movement and progress, spirals, the opening of a flower Celebration - fireworks and confetti, effervescence, things that amplify joy with other people

[@michaelemouse1]

She exemplifies a few of those joy-inducing aesthetic elements. An abundance of colors, symmetry in her dress & hair, energy & bright color of her dress, round frills to her dress, surprise & whimsy in her painted nails. I'm sure there are other elements I've missed.

[@PracticalInspiration]

It was interesting to see how her background is integrated into her thoughts here, particularly in terms of how we psychologically associate meaning to colour or patterns

[@DrOwenAnderson]

It’s helpful to think about how aesthetics and joy are connected to others ideas like truth and goodness.

[@Suertsje]

I like this idea. I like how it expands the meaning of joy. Now what would the opposite of joy be? I'd like to have more words for intense momentary pain as well

[@MysterEarl]

Glad to see Big Think curating videos better.

[@mtumasz]

Great stuff, seemingly obvious & simple but very powerful indeed🙏🏻

[@reachsuccessredlyrics4946]

BIG THINK IS SUCH AN AWESOME CHANNEL, BIG THINK have both inspired me and helped me in my own personal development. I would really want to thank this channel for everything it has given me. This channel has actually inspired me so much so that I have even started my own channel. I see my channel as my way of making the world a better place and to give back for everyone who have given me things and inspiration in life, I’m grateful for all the support I can get in growing my channel.

[@knowwhere4185]

i think why round things brings us joy is bcoz somewhere we dont want things to end, we want to continue forever like a merry go round or atleast want something to live on forever

[@AllieFettig]

My double A batteries bring me joy.

[@ropro9817]

XD

[@mediawolf1]

This is fantastic

[@nikomitropoulos5292]

What are all the values, ethics, aesthetics, positive feelings and what gives rise to them? What are the design hacks for all of them?

[@Ndo01]

This is so good

[@intercat4907]

Finding that even having grandkids doesn't always bring joy because some factors are out of our control ... now, THAT packs a wallop. And a lot of forgiveness.

[@me.atul10]

I have same nailpolish as she has on her right hand, pinky nail.

[@muppetallica]

Cool. I guess her multicolored nail polish must give her the first joy, of abundance, since she mentioned lots of something, like a rainbow or stripes or polka dots.

[@angelisland22]

Interesting

[@amarok5048]

I like listening to you

[@stevebetance116]

You can't replace the joy of Spirit

[@AGFuzzyPancake]

Just goes black half way through? Very interesting talk, anyway. Joy and happiness should be distinguished and exploited for our own good. Chasing happiness can lead to an existential crisis. Chasing joy is more practical. The aesthetics of joy and happiness are a very interesting concept

[@Jeremyramone]

Books and skating and music bring me joy. Just seeing the things she describes seem ineffective for me.

[@Flyanb]

I wanted to hear about aesthetics in industrial design. Descriptions of what people are liking now in design. Bummer!

[@marishaa.2846]

Descriptions of what people are liking now in design? Wasn't that about design in general? She talks about patterns, so that means repeating behaviors of people she's seen through time again and again. And from what I know, industrial design also includes concerns like psychology, desire and the emotional attachment of users to the product that you're designing. So, it seems her talk can come in handy for when you design the aesthetics of your product.

[@markkravitz4678]

👌 Napoleon said whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. A top businessman @evenkingsfall (his insta) never stops saying you have to THINK BIG to WIN BIG! Always keep that approach to life! Great videos always ⚡️

[@howtheworldworks3]

The biggest joy inducing aesthetics that I enjoy right now comes from My little pony Frienship is magic. I ca't explain why unless you watch a few episodes yourselves to understand why.

[@Brahmdagh]

Sounds rather arbitrary to me.

[@sebastianelytron8450]

This woman needs lessons in how to give a talk. You feel like there is some merit and a gist to what she is trying to say but her delivery is rambly and all over the place.

[@ropro9817]

Sadly most of these videos on Big Think are rambly, stream of consciousness style. Some speakers do it better than others.