The multiple formulations and discussions of delight in UX demonstrate its significance for the UX design community. However, it appears unclear what delight specifically is and how it particularly differs from pleasure, which designers use interchangeably with delight. This paper elaborates on delight in UX by drawing on existing knowledge and theory on emotion and experience. It argues that pleasure and delight are distinct, and posits delight as the combination of joy with surprise or captivation, which leads the user to experience a wow! or yay! moment, respectively. The paper also posits that a designer’s intended delight—how she envisions the product causing delight—may differ from the user’s experienced delight—the wow! and yay! moments—during the UX as such delight is assimilated by the user and affects her expectations concerning the delightfulness of using interactive products. Nevertheless, this same assimilated delight encourages continuous use of such products.

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