To cultivate happiness might seem like a significant endeavor, but it’s entirely achievable. Focusing on the essential ingredients of a joyful life is a vital aspect of personal development and well-being.

The 23 Happiness Cards serve as a tool to help you explore and integrate the various components that contribute to lasting happiness. Use them to break down the multifaceted concept of happiness into manageable elements, providing a direct pathway to self-reflection and meaningful conversations.

For whom?

For anyone aged 10 and up who is curious about happiness.
Enjoy discovering your own building blocks of happiness!
Note that the card set is available in Dutch.

Building Blocks of Happiness

Did you know there are at least 23 ingredients for a happy life?
You’ll find them all in this box!
Curiosity, Freedom, Compassion, Friendship, Safety, Relaxation, and many more.

Each card offers a brief description and two inspiring images. Use the cards to initiate positive conversations, spark your creativity, and bring happiness to others—and, of course, to yourself.

What’s in the box?

  • 10 cards featuring positive emotions
  • 13 cards highlighting universal needs
  • A concise manual with usage tips

Availability

The Happiness Cards are published under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This means you are free to share the card set for non-commercial purposes as long as you give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and do not modify the original material.

We believe in open-access research, so you can download the card set here:
<Downloadable PDF>

The cards were developed by researchers and students from the Delft Institute of Positive Design, in collaboration with designer Ane de la Brena. They were designed for creative projects with young people aged 10 and up and are part of the project “Child! What Would You Do?! Children and young people advising parents on parenting and growing up: design-based research on what works according to the youth.” This project is a collaboration between TU Delft, Windesheim University of Applied Sciences (Research Group on Youth), Garage2020 Foundation, Kinderperspectief Foundation, University of Amsterdam, University of Groningen, and SWV Amsterdam/Diemen.

Concept: Pieter Desmet

Image selection: Ankita Arora, Chiara Volpi, Niko Vegt, Ane de la Brena, and Pieter Desmet

Design: Ane de la Brena

Background

The Happiness Cards are an adaptation of the Design for Happiness Deck, originally published in 2017 by the Delft Institute of Positive Design. The positive emotions are based on research by Desmet (2012) and Yoon (2018), and the needs are based on work by Desmet and Fokkinga (2020).

Funding

The development of the cards was supported in part by a ZonMW grant (number 07440332110028), program “What Works for Youth”, and by a VICI grant (number 453-16-009) from the Dutch Research Council (NWO), awarded to P.M.A. Desmet.

Citation

In communication, please refer to this publication as follows:
Desmet, P.M.A. (2024). Gelukskaarten: Bouwstenen van een leuk leven (in Dutch). Delft: Delft University of Technology. ISBN: 978-94-6384-645-5.

Publication date

December 2024