The word “delight” gets used so much in design because of the way Sir Henry Wotton translated Vitruvius’ The Elements of Architecture in 1624. Mitch Kapor quoted Wotton’s interpretation as Vetruvius in his 1990 software design manifesto.

Vitruvius identified three elements necessary for a well-designed building: firmitas, utilitas, and venustas. Wotton translated this as: Commodity Firmness and Delight. It’s more like firmness, utility, and beauty.

So, the open question is, in 2021, how best to characterize the aesthetic dimension of interactive digital systems because we shouldn’t be beholden to what a 17th century Englishman was saying about architecture.