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Why Do We Love Rounded Corners?

basement.org — Cool article on why designers love rounded corners - interesting angle on interaction design.

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  • jeffsdigital, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Interesting article. Thanks!
  • nymphetamine, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10we love rounded corners because sharp corners hurt.
  • dude3609, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1you mean round corners such as http://poxy.us.to/ ? :D
    This is a great article though. Thanks
    I really hope to see more websites using round corners.. Although I think there needs to be exceptions.. Like, you can't have half your site round and the other half full of boxes.. So if digg.com made a few 'rounded' objects, I think it would make it worse. Keeping part of the site looking alot like the rest of the site is a very good thing... Obviously.. hehe
    But, I think it would also be nice to maybe combine photoshop or somethin with rounded corners.. As long as the 'plain' look stays there, then it might actually look really good. :)

    ---------------------
    http://poxy.us.to/ - Surf the web anonymously, free, no ads, loads of options, no pop ups, no tracking cookies, we make no money from you!
  • StephnDolenc, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1wow dude3609

    there are so many things wrong with your comment
  • Mysticcal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Some people like sharp edges... it just all depends...
  • Philbert, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1My site is all roundy too :) This is similar to a study I read years ago about why women are scientifically more attractive than men. Because the human eye is naturally more drawn towards softer curves. Look at some magazine in the store. Sure the Men's mags like Maxim have pictures of women, but so do women's mags like Cosmo.
  • rompom7, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0I agree, although sites don't need to have rounded corners to look good. Take http://asdf.1magine.net/ as an example.
  • mscf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0In my opinion, philbert's comment is the most accurate description of this phenomenon. Most people tend to view the female form as the ideal, and objects or designs which emulate it, however subtly, evoke a positive response.

    This isn't just a male thing either, in my experience: my wife often points out other women who she thinks are attractive - she's not attracted to them, but recognizes something universally attractive about the female form.
  • sandormen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The story about why they became a part of the original Macintosh:
    http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Round_Rects_Are_Everywhere.txt
  • rompom7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0grimdotdotdot: yeah your right. i just noticed. and the whole banner is rounded, sorta like an illusion or somethig :P
  • .Steven, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0id: 8446
  • ForbesBingley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Nature abhors straight lines...
  • Opanoid, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Working within the design industry for the past 15 years I tend to see styles of designs come and go. Since starting I've seen rounded corners come and go 3 times (at one point they hung around for quite some time and I got quite sick of them).

    Personally I just think it's the 'round corners' time to be cool for the moment and don't think anyone is more attracted to them than sharper edges.
  • clumsyninja, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I like diggs use of both rounded and "sharp" edges.
  • ross., on 10/12/2007, -0/+0These round and sharp corners are annoying me now.
    I've never noticed them before, but now I'm like all OCD'd.

  • theone3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0http://www.alirobe.com/kingfisher
    http://www.alirobe.com/seanachai

    both have no rounded corners and the designs looks fine!
  • Rirath, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Rounded corners and equating to the female form all make a lot of sense, and is probably true in some fashion... but there's a lot to be said for straight edges as well. Sharp points and right angles aren't dead yet, especially for things where functionality trumps design. So long as there are programmers, there will be boxes.
  • DeadlyHunter, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0this has to be one of the lamest diggs i have read, first they use a ipod as a example okay thats fine, but guess what people didnt buy a ipod for the rounded corners. Anyone who thinks so is a moron, what the next digg will be why we like the color white? why because the ipod was white? and for the morons in the comments that said it is similar to liking the female form; guess what the ipod is SQUARE. And men and women that like the female form have nothing to do with the "human eye is naturally more drawn towards softer curves", it has to do with men liking women sexually, and women comparing themselves to each other. There are a heck of a lot more 'rounded' mp3 players.

    speaking of rounded mp3 players here is one:


    http://www.yenra.com/wearable-mp3-player/wearable-mp3-player.jpg

    So in summary this 'article' is lame and reported as such.
  • saichele, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0speaking of females and rounded corners - the first few sites I built as a developer had rounded corners or obvious curved elements. Now all my clients are women who want sites with curves. go figure.
  • Lufy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0yeah i love rounded corners :

    http://www.open-files.com/

    for me it's sounds like the 1960-1970 designs
  • neurokaotix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0How funny I was just having a dream of how I could implement rounded corners in Firefox and make an implementation for IEwin that was hidden from all other browsers.
  • billyboobs34, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1...and now you know the reason I hate Legos and love boobies.
  • stijn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I have to say I use rounded corners all the time. Those sharp corners just look so old and aggressive.
  • ksgant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's so The Hounds of Tindalos don't get to us as they travel through "outrageous" angles.
  • billyboobs34, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"for me it's sounds like the 1960-1970 designs"

    Those are all oval and egg shapes
  • avg_bear, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I am a designer, and this is lame. The use of rounded corners in design is a modern trend, not an innate psychological aesthetic.

    I suppose I could make a similar argument that our primitive ape brains tell us that right angles are "sharp" and may cause harm, so in turn we prefer our web pages to have rounded corners.

    This reminds me of those idiots back in school that didn't bother to understand basic design principles so they just spouted bs like this.
  • Scoe4, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I like a good basic rough edged tear,, does that mean I was abused as a child?
  • HighRisk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Round corners exist to help reduce stress concentrations so cracks do not nucleate and either a) break the devicee, or b) make it look like crap.
  • gregcotten, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0avg_bear - you be ignant.
  • DansnBear, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Hey theone3, I don't mean to argue, but I do see a rounded corner on the seanachai page.

    And by looking at your portfolio, you seam to have a liking for the round rect anyway.

    http://www.alirobe.com/folio.htm
  • super_structure, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I can't believe it's not been said yet, but: Rounded corners are hot because they are harder to create. It takes more time and effort to produce them (in the rendered computer world, if not in the real world, too). Therefore, using them can help to set your design apart.

    They may be a hot trend in industrial and web design right now, but they're pretty much dead-in-the-water as far as architecture goes.
  • orangetiki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It looks push-buttony. Like the console on star trek or something. That and also flat squares are dull, and ovals are just corny.
  • Estazor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yea I gotta agree with the census that rounded corners are really just a fad. They come and go in design and when it really comes down to which to use it's really about the overall design. Does your message call for round corners to create a much more softer feel or is it straight edges?
  • billyboobs34, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I just need to make sure that my UFO has no sharp points or it may lead to dangerous electrical discharges. I need all the power I can get for my gravity transducers.
  • Bokista, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Call me a pretentious academic, but does anyone else find it hard to trust everything in a 14 page paper where there are no citations and only two sources?
  • jiminoc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0agreed with digg's mix...
    to me digg has one of the best, cleanest layouts I've ever seen. simple, easy to use and nice on the eyes.
  • smada, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I like to get bent
  • laraksca, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If you have spent anytime designing professionally rounded corners has been part of the designers choice long before web pages and the Internet. Choosing fonts, serif or san-serif, with a softer corners is all part of the design process. Rounded corners will be here long after the so called fad is over and a choice need to be made to get the desired look.
    Does there really need to be an explanation about it. Too much time on someones hands.
  • Launchpad90210, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0http://www.yafla.com/dforbes/2005/11/23.html#a194
  • StarManta, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1My opinion on another reason rounded corners are so nice: they make things appear smaller. Our eye measures the size of an object from corner to corner, usually; rounded objects trick our eye into seeing something as being smaller than it actually is. Look at the picture of an iPod next to any square-edged player with identical dimensions - i guarantee the iPod will seem considerably smaller. This is even more true if you look at them from an angle.
  • Kman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0In other news, why men love attractive women.
  • rooster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I just emailed this to Bill Gates with the subject line: FYI
  • andyatkinson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Round corners make your image softer. Round corners are a must for web design. If you would like a free way to make rounded corners, pick up a copy of GIMPShop, then try out this guide:

    http://paininthetech.com/creating_rounded_corners_with_gimpshop
  • vvvv, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Sharp edges have their place too. They look more professional or businesslike.

    For example men's dress pants, especially military uniforms, usually have a sharp crease in the legs, and back when Windows XP came out with the blunter-edged windows, a lot of people said the UI looked kiddie-ish or reminded them of nintendo
  • standsolid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0To web site owners who think they can get some free publicity through digg comments:

    we don't care what kind of corners your personal blog has.
  • jdeluise, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0We are all puppeteers...
  • oldcyborg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Round is More comforting on two very important issues to men... :)

    Round is the female form, and Round is optimum shape for furniture, facings, and anything you have to walk by... I have bruises all the time, just from door facings.. I know, Getting old is hard medicine :)

    Fashion too, I suppose, but the top two are, as listed above!! (only my opinion)

    Cyborg
  • Chango_Family, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Round corners make your image softer. Round corners are a must for web design. If you would like a free way to make rounded corners, pick up a copy of GIMPShop, then try out this guide:
    http://paininthetech.com/creating_rounded_corners_with_gimpshop


    No, no...dont share the 'secret'.
    Now everyone will be able to make rounded corners in a few secs too.
  • bluemech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I hate rounded corners, especially when it comes to my OS. I can't stand the default XP design patrially because of that. Plus it's ugly and looks like fisher-price. Bring back sharp corners, manly corners.
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