Hidden Delighters

This article was originally published in issue #04 of my Flying Solo newsletter. Subscribe and read previous issues in the archive.

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Years ago, back in my web design days, I went to a talk about "delighters". You know the thing — those little design touches that on first sighting make you go, "Ooh, that's nice". Moments of surprise. Tiny bits of, well, delight.

You don't see as many of them these days. What could ever top the first time you pulled down to refresh a page (Twitterrific if memory serves) or the sweet parallax scroll on the Silverback App site back in 2008?

I was reminded of that talk while reading a recent post by Nick Parter. He shared a hidden delighter from early Paynter jackets.

If you don’t know them, Paynter makes limited-edition jackets and shirts — designed in London, made in Portugal, and yes, very nice. I had one once, but outgrew it (middle age comes at you fast). Also, they're on Shopify.

Anyway back to the point. Each jacket came with two care labels. On the back were the the usual washing and drying instructions, but on the front you'd find a care label for yourself. You might not agree with every suggestion (Coco Pops?!), but it was clever, memorable, and widely shared. They even turned it into a screenprint. The label was quietly retired in 2020, but people still talk about it — like I am now.

It made me think — how often are we building small, delightful moments into our marketing, onboarding, or products? Got a good example? I'd love to hear it.