“This also introduces new questions.”

Designer Reimar Servas goes further than the usual Border Radius Discourse and thinks about the deeper but often ignored questions of border radii as a system, and about the consequences of such a system that go beyond visuals: […] These redesign efforts suggest ignorance of a fundamental problem: rounded forms have a smaller surface area than angular ones. Used as containers, they reduce usable space. This is fine on most touch-based UIs since they typically feature simple layouts with only a few controls and plenty of white space. Such spacious designs help our fingertips, which demand larger touch areas. A mouse pointer, by contrast, can target much smaller elements. Professional desktop software — think 3D modelling, video editing, or music production — is often packed with small controls. On these complex interfaces (and the operating systems that host them) screen estate is precious, even on large screens. Heavily rounded elements don’t work well here. I liked this simple, but…