Michael Kimb Jones

I have been working on the re-design for this site for a few weeks now. The first step was to update the logo:

Above: My new logo (left) and old logo (right) for mkjones.co.uk

The logo on the right is my old logo. Its rather bland with squared edges but I always did like the pink colour. Now believe me when I say I tried my best NOT to follow the “rounded corners gang” but there is something very appealing about them. For a long while I wanted to keep the old square logo and slot it into the new design somehow. But the lure of rounded edges and a glossy sheen got to me.

This reminded my of an article I found a while ago on Digg. “Why Do We Love Rounded Corners?” tries to explain why designers have turned to rounded edges more and more in recent years.

It has some interesting points but the main idea centres around the fact that human beings draw an affinity with anything that’s “organic” or “soft” in nature. Therefore using rounded edges in web design will ultimately make a user feel at ease and relaxed.

Here is a quote from the article:

On one level, I think we’re attracted to things that appear to be organic in nature. Take the iPod for instance. While the industrial design of similar products clearly hints towards how the device came to be, Apple put a lot of effort into creating a device that feels more like it grew on a tree than assembled in a factory. They went to great pains to conceal the machine-like characteristics that would typically hold a device together (screws, etc.). The result is a smoother feel with very few edges or hard angles to be found. This “smoothness” not only speaks to usability but also fosters an emotional connection with the device. Some of our earliest memories are tied to objects and things that are far less than perfect and rife with right angles. Corners say “go away.” At the risk of sounding hoaky: smoother, rounder surfaces say “hold me.”

I’m not sure if there is any true science behind these findings or even if I belive any of it.

At the end of the day I think most sites are designed with rounded edges purely because it looks cool.