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Comment by magicjosh | Hacker News Reader

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magicjosh·

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.

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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.

Relevant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouba/kiki_effect

Very cool. Thanks.

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...

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

Yes, I agree with several of the points made in the article.

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