A Little Gold Goes a Long Way
“Gilding the lily” usually means adding unnecessary ornamentation to something already beautiful. In design, though, a touch of deliberate decoration — a subtle animation, a hint of color, a deeper shadow — can signal care and build trust. But the metaphor only works if the fundamentals are solid. You need a lily before you can gild it.
Start With the Basics
If your design isn’t already strong, no amount of polish will save it. The “lily” is the core product: solid structure, clear hierarchy, good typography. Once that’s in place, a thin layer of “gold” — a small, thoughtful detail — can elevate the experience without overwhelming it.
That gilding might be an animated transition between states, a subtle color shift, or a shadow with a touch of depth. The goal is a hint of decadence, not excess.
Resist Over-Ornamentation
Too much decoration can backfire. A flashy animation celebrating a new feature may irritate a user who is stuck trying to reset a password. The message should be delight, not self-congratulation. Go one inch too far and you’re asking for applause instead of enabling a smooth experience.
Wink Once, Briefly
When the design works well, it often goes unnoticed. But there’s value in occasionally letting the user see the craftsmanship. Apple’s site is a good example: the white background is obviously a choice, not an oversight. You and your client are probably not Apple, but you can still make deliberate choices that show attention to detail.
When you’re nailing the fundamentals, it’s ok to wink at the audience once in a while. Not only is it ok, but it can even augment your design.
The key is restraint. A single, well-placed detail can make the design more enjoyable. Too many, and you’re distracting from the user’s goal.
Practical Gilding for Digital Products
Here are concrete ways to add a touch of polish to a web interface:
Almost-black and almost-white: Instead of pure #000000 and #FFFFFF, use subtle off-black and off-white tones. They still read as neutral, but signal care. An off-white background also lets pure white elements, like form inputs, stand out. Ensure contrast remains accessible.
Tinted, layered shadows: Shadows that carry a hint of color feel richer than flat gray ones. Designers like Josh Comeau have explored this technique, and tools exist to generate such shadow palettes.
Comfortable lettering: Line height and letter spacing should feel natural for the chosen typeface. A responsive type scale, such as the one from Utopia, helps define comfortable spacing across devices.
A stripe of accent color: A few pixels of solid brand color along the top of the viewport can add life to an otherwise monotone site without complicating the layout. The One React web framework does this with a yellow accent that persists in both light and dark modes.
Thoughtful imagery: Stock photos rarely match the impact of a relevant illustration or photo that feels bespoke. A List Apart has used commissioned illustrations in a consistent style for each article for years. Even an amateur’s scribble can have charm if it’s honest.
Watch Out for Cheap Imitations
Decadence is valued when it’s rare. Rounded corners on a business card once felt premium because they cost more. Now that printing services offer them as a standard upsell, they’ve lost their luster. Similarly, a well-crafted cover letter used to stand out; now AI-generated ones flood the pile.
On the web, slide-and-fade animations on landing pages once implied custom effort. Today, they feel like templates from Wix, Squarespace, or Webflow. Custom fonts are so common that choosing system defaults can itself be a statement of intent.
The Cumulative Effect
Will everyone notice the tint in your drop shadow? Probably not. Will anyone? Maybe not. But these details are cumulative — they add one percent here, one percent there, toward an overall sense of quality.
Users may not know the technical specifics of CSS animations or box-shadow properties. They just feel the difference, much like how you can feel the difference when closing the door on a well-built car.
So on your next project, allow yourself to gild just one lily.
