Design for Happiness Deck

The Design for Happiness Deck is a practical ideation and reflection toolkit developed at the Delft Institute of Positive Design (TU Delft) to support designers, researchers, educators, and teams in creating products and services that foster human happiness. The deck consists of 72 cards, grouped into three evidence-based happiness components:

• 24 Positive Emotions – happiness from enjoying the moment

• 24 Human Goals – happiness from pursuing meaningful aims

• 24 Character Strengths – happiness from acting virtuously

Each card provides a clear definition and illustrated example of a specific emotion, goal, or strength, offering users a fine-grained language for analysing experiences, generating design directions, and articulating wellbeing ambitions. The accompanying manual explains the theoretical foundations of the deck, based on the Positive Design Framework (Desmet & Pohlmeyer, 2013, 2017), and offers facilitation tips, example exercises, and application scenarios for workshops, education, and design research. 

Designed as a flexible tool, the deck can be used to spark conversations, support user research, guide co-design, evaluate design concepts, and inspire creativity. Its purpose is to help designers challenge and enhance the wellbeing potential of their work by engaging with the rich diversity of what makes human lives flourish.