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Why do we round corners?

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Re: Why do we round corners?

#31

Post by Beltalowda »

magicjosh wrote: post #4
0x7E3 wrote: post #2

> We can all appreciate the aesthetic beauty of rounded corners. Can we? Much like that top 40 song that comes on the radio way too often, I have come to find all the rounded corners off-putting. They are usually a signal of form over function, and often used by information sparse sites. Give me square corners like HackerNews, old Reddit, or Vanguard any day.

The full article goes into the advantages and disadvantages of rounded corners. From the article: + Boxy shapes are commonly seen as reliable, uniform, traditional, and professional. + Round shapes are commonly seen as charismatic, endearing, harmless, and friendly. Sounds like you and the authors would agree.

I wonder how much of that is cultural; do people in China, India, Indonesia, Africa, etc. have the same perceptions and associations?

Re: Why do we round corners?

#33

Post by dredmorbius »

0x7E3 wrote: post #2

> We can all appreciate the aesthetic beauty of rounded corners. Can we? Much like that top 40 song that comes on the radio way too often, I have come to find all the rounded corners off-putting. They are usually a signal of form over function, and often used by information sparse sites. Give me square corners like HackerNews, old Reddit, or Vanguard any day.

Slashdot led the fray with its border-radius top-green-bar design.

Re: Why do we round corners?

#34

Post by InitialLastName »

pedrosorio wrote: post #25
mcphage wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, but internal sharp angles are pretty good. Get a nice V to defend against attackers from 2 sides…

Yep, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Fortress_of_Almeida

Worth noting that in addition to the ability of defenders to see every part of the wall, star forts have the advantage of making artillery fire more likely to hit the wall at an oblique angle, reducing the odds of a direct hit and (probabilistically) reducing the energy imparted to destroying the wall.

Re: Why do we round corners?

#35

Post by ketzo »

Beltalowda wrote: post #31
magicjosh wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The full article goes into the advantages and disadvantages of rounded corners. From the article: + Boxy shapes are commonly seen as reliable, uniform, traditional, and professional. + Round shapes are commonly seen as charismatic, endearing, harmless, and friendly. Sounds like you and the authors would agree.

I wonder how much of that is cultural; do people in China, India, Indonesia, Africa, etc. have the same perceptions and associations?

This is super, super tangential, but I know that certain word sounds have very similar associations across almost any culture; “mom”, for example, sounds soft and warm to basically anyone who hears it, while “flak” sounds violent or harsh.

Re: Why do we round corners?

#36

Post by NoPicklez »

The "We are conditioned for round corners" was a bit far-fetched in terms of how it relates to design in my opinion. As the article asks the reader to think about its purpose, agreeing that there is a place for sharp edges.

I wouldn't let my child play with a fork, but I wouldn't let them eat their dinner with a ball either?

Re: Why do we round corners?

#39

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

kazinator wrote: post #10

Rounded corners look more sturdy and robust. Objects with sharp angles are easier to break. External corners are easily damaged. Metal corner guards for cabinets are often rounded, and that makes them not only safer for people but also rugged. Internal corners concentrate stresses, making it easier to start a crack and break the object. Sharp corners are easy to produce, requiring less tooling, and so look cheap.

> Sharp corners are easy to produce, requiring less tooling, and so look cheap.

An artifact of modernity, surely? Historically, tight, neat corners required large amounts of skill and the right tools to create, whereas there were many approaches to rounding-off an arbitrary corner or edge.

Re: Why do we round corners?

#40

Post by taf2 »

Funny last week we removed all the rounded corners. We set a border css variable so all the border rules became

border-radius: var(--border-size);

We figured this way every 6 months or so we could switch between squares and rounded edges... This may provide little design pops to give a fresh feeling to users... we'll see so far it feels very fresh to me.

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