This study makes a significant contribution to practice by providing directions for organizations and web designers who aim to encourage and support informal online learning. The study has explicitly identified web characteristics and design guidelines that lead to positive emotions such as enjoyment during a web experience and that can thus add to learning outcomes for web users. The characteristics that designers should endeavor to embed in websites for informal learning are the following: novelty, in terms of continuous change to stimuli; harmonization that links both form and content of the design; unconstrained time for engagement; and links to other resources of value. Important design guidelines for practice are the following: build involvement through a storyline, promote a positive mood for users, make the learning opportunity fun, and provide mechanisms for social interaction. The directions that are provided by the study for practice are important because they arose from a study of what users think and across a large sample of users. As discussed, these directions differ to some extent from what the literature and theory says from the expert designers' point of view.