Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Why do we round corners?
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Re: Why do we round corners?
#52Because Apple did it. Rounded corners is 50s design and was considered kitsch, but once it became associated with the privilege of owning an idevice it became ubiquitous and impossible to quit. I am one of those who has gotten sick of them
Re: Why do we round corners?
#53Because Apple did it. Rounded corners is 50s design and was considered kitsch, but once it became associated with the privilege of owning an idevice it became ubiquitous and impossible to quit. I am one of those who has gotten sick of them
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Re: Why do we round corners?
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Even more tangential than thou:
Why Does ‘Mother’ Sound The Same In So Many Languages? The concept of “Mom” is universal — and, for the most part, so is the name we’ve given her. The reason is probably a lot simpler than you think.
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/why-does-mother-sound-the...
Re: Why do we round corners?
#55> 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.
the article uses science to come to arbitrary conclusions. some of their claims have no scientific evidence, but , for example, something being perceived as brighter is a good thing , it highlights it, it's not seen as a threat. corners are attractors for the visual system, and gradients give the perception of depth. Those are useful properties for UI design as they reduce the latency of our visual system by hundreds of milliseconds. I don't know if round corners have any real use
Re: Why do we round corners?
#56The corner in that picture looks absolutely disgusting, you can see the discontinuity. I would rather have a square corner if you are not going to bother to round them properly.
The way to actually produce rounded squares is to fix the curvature, and then solve for a corresponding curve. You want at least a differentiable function for the curvature. Something with a bit of a spike (think of a Gaussian, but make it level off to flat after the spikes). From the curvature you can use something like the Frenet–Serret formula, integrate and find a formula for a curve. You then approximate it with a bunch of bezier curves. Should get something nice and smooth.
Re: Why do we round corners?
#57You round corners because that's what other designers started doing since Windows xp/vista times. The rest just seem like rationalizations.
Just go to any website and run:
document.querySelectorAll('*').forEach(_ => _.style.borderRadius = 0);
The reason probably being the other UI fad, which is to make everything so lacking in contrast, that it's hard to discern the difference between round/sharp corners, even if you focus on it.
Re: Why do we round corners?
#58A few months ago, I built matching houseframe beds for my 2 year old grandtwins ( https://www.woodshopdiaries.com/diy-kids-house-bed/ ). The best piece of advice I got from my dad before I started on this (for me) ambitious project was in question form: "Are you going round over all the edges? A 1/2 inch round leaves a bruise on a little one. An unfinished edge leaves a cut." He's been right. They're psycho 2 year ol…
When I buy PC cases, I prefer the ones whose sheetmetal edges are rounded and not sharp. The sharp edged ones are knuckle cutters.
Re: Why do we round corners?
#59For my feeling, I find bevels provide me with the greatest relief.
Re: Why do we round corners?
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
I kinda like the notched corners of Battlestar Galactica, personally. Though I always did wonder what happened to all the triangles...
Taking triangles off a corner is called a chamfer. If you're cutting it off, the material ends up on the floor or vaccines up, then recycled into new stock
The corners of their papers were all docked[1]. Recycling paper is certainly possible, just not terribly efficient. Throughout the story, they're extremely resource constrained. My question isn't generic, it's "how the hell does this aesthetic choice survive in that environment".
[1] https://www.famefocus.com/tv/33-things-didnt-know-battlestar...