Nobody needs to twist a sandwich cookie apart. It doesn’t make the cookie taste better. It takes longer. It leaves cream on your thumb. People do it anyway.
This is the second paper in The Joy Dividend in Practice. No. 01 removed the friction nobody chose. This one is about what comes after calm: food people play with, and what that means for food and beverage product development.
It starts with the order: play only works once the product is calm. It argues that chosen friction is a feature, and that it pays only when people get to finish. It takes the senses one at a time and separates pleasure from play: a crunch becomes play when it invites you to do something. It maps where play belongs on the journey, works through a snack that has been getting it right since 1966, and names four ways play goes wrong.
It ends with eight questions to ask before you call anything fun. The first is whether the product works, and tastes right, without the play. If the answer is no, go back to No. 01.
Fun isn’t a flavor launch. It’s how the food behaves in your hands.
Next in the series: Surprise & Delight.
Download the white paper