Designing Delight: How to Create Experiences That Bridge Intent and Impact

About Juliana

Can you tell me about your role right now and the path to get there?

I'm a Creative Director with a background in Marketing and Brand Design for SaaS companies. I started my career focused on craft: getting the pixels right, shaping brand stories visually. As I moved between roles and teams, I found myself stepping into more strategic conversations, bridging the gap between creative ideas and business needs. Now, I bring both sides of that journey into my work: thoughtful design rooted in big-picture thinking.

Building Experiences People Love

What's one thing you've seen consistently make people love the experience when it comes to your field? How do you know when you've hit that emotional sweet spot with users?

At its core, I believe the job of design is to communicate: to make ideas clear, accessible, and memorable. When people feel genuinely connected to a design, it's usually because it helped them understand something that matters, whether that's how a product works or what a brand stands for.

Storytelling plays a big role in that. It adds context, evokes emotion, and helps the viewer relate the message to their own experience. When someone walks away not just understanding the message but feeling something (empathy, delight, surprise, or curiosity), that's when I know the design has done its job. It is not just decoration; it is a bridge between intent and impact.

“ When someone walks away not just understanding the message but feeling something (empathy, delight, surprise, or curiosity), that's when I know the design has done its job. “

Can you share a moment when you realized something you built really connected with someone?

It is a rare opportunity for a designer in a digital environment to see people interact with our work first-hand. That's why I have very fond memories of creating a mural for the office of Penny AI and inviting the team to help me paint it by numbers during a social event. The final result of that project wasn't only the mural itself, but the whole experience of team building and the sense of ownership this created. When the company moved offices and we had to say goodbye to that mural, multiple people came to tell me that they'd miss it and how much fun they had had creating it. That proof of the real impact it had in company culture.

What's a small detail or decision that made a big difference in how people responded?

Little moments of delight can make all the difference. A little bit of cheeky copy on a corporate gift, a well-placed emoji on a headline, a clever illustration that is the perfect visual metaphor, a 404 page illustrated with a flying unicorn. All of these things come together to shape a brand and add small yet memorable details that the audience certainly appreciates.

“ Measuring whether people actually love what you've created - This is a major challenge. I don't often have the opportunity to get qualitative feedback from my target audience. ”

How do you currently understand or measure whether people actually love what you've created?

This is a major challenge. I don't often have the opportunity to get qualitative feedback from my target audience. I sometimes ask people in my personal network for feedback on major projects if they happen to be part of the target audience in some capacity. I can also ask people who are closer to the audience such as Customer Service or Success if they have any insight on a particular campaign. Social media comments provide limited insight. Other than that, I have to rely on tools like Analytics or Hotjar and metrics like time on page, click-through rate, social media engagement and conversions to extrapolate user behaviour into user sentiment.

Who Does It Well?

If you're looking for inspiration - what companies inspire you?

I'm a sucker for tech companies that actually do a good job of explaining themselves. It sounds simple, but it's a really hard task. I think Zendesk, Monday, and Mailchimp do this really well.

What's a brand that consistently makes you feel something when you interact with them?

Surprisingly, Wealthsimple. I am not a customer, but I subscribe to their newsletter. Their short blurbs makes the complicated world of finance feel much more approachable to me, because they explain it in terms that even a graphic designer can understand. I feel informed and just that little bit smarter after reading it.

Can you think of a company that seems to really understand their users' emotions? What do they do differently?

Superside is one company that truly understands their target audience, and their content and social media game is unmatched. Their long form content feels truly useful and I've learned a lot from their ebooks. Their social media is more lighthearted and feels like they truly understand the struggles of an in-house creative team.