In today’s panel, Oooh, That’s Clever, Paul Annett from Clearleft, Ltd showed his favorite examples of cleverness in design. From hidden symbols in logos (FedEx’s arrow and Toblerone’s bear) to Easter eggs within web sites, Annett tried to demonstrate how by hiding things and delighting those who find them, you may be able to create enough buzz resulting in 11,000,000 hits on your YouTube magic video.

But isn’t that usually the point of most web sites? To have that extra something the other person doesn’t; originality and cleverness, whether it be in the design or the content, to increase unique visitors to your site or buzz around your product?

Personally, I don’t care for the Easter egg. I’m actually scared of what it could mean. Remember The Net? Nothing good ever came from Sandra Bullock Ctrl-Shift clicking the π symbol in the bottom-right corner of a computer application called Mozart’s Ghost. She opened Pandora’s box which ultimately lead to the deletion of her identity and Dennis Miller’s untimely death. I, for one, do not want to be responsible for something like that.