I think the author makes a valid point re: emotional design, but he also seems to confuse "pleasurable" design with his own personal taste (which appears to be bright and bubbly with heavy illustration). I'd say that sites like Reddit (and HN), Basecamp, Craigslist, Teuxdeux have their own visual personality (that their users enjoy) despite lacking animated cartoon birds. Pleasurable is subjective and will vary widely depending on audience.
I like the modified Maslow's Hierarchy, but I think he's overemphasizing the top piece in this article. Businesses have enough trouble achieving the bottom three pieces (Functional, Reliable, Usable), and often skip them to aim for Pleasurable. http://carsonified.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/maslow-hie...
I don't get his examples. He talks about designs being both "usable and pleasurable", but I don't see any real difference in the designs. They both have fairly flexible layouts, attractive backgrounds and well formatted text. The only element that WuFoo has that BaseCamp does not is a "warm" color scheme.
The rest of it basically boils down to "give your users feedback, but do it in a 'fun' way." I mean, that's a good lesson to have, but its nothing earth shattering.
I like the modified Maslow's Hierarchy, but I think he's overemphasizing the top piece in this article. Businesses have enough trouble achieving the bottom three pieces (Functional, Reliable, Usable), and often skip them to aim for Pleasurable. http://carsonified.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/maslow-hie...