Adding rounded corners to buttons

[mia-allers-gds]

Background

The Design System team is exploring new styling options, including rounded corners for buttons, following the GOV.UK brand refresh. We want to make sure the changes we make are not purely stylistic, by focusing our efforts on improving usability and affordance where we can.

Important

We'd like to know your thoughts on this update. Add a comment to this discussion, or wait for our announcement on other ways to give feedback.

Design approach

To make the GOV.UK brand "friendlier," we are exploring ways to soften visual elements, such as building on the "dot" motif. Rounded corners are an obvious choice to include, but we want to make sure they are used in a considered and meaningful way.

Why rounded corners on buttons?

We think adding rounded corners to the button component will improve the usability of the component, while also achieving the aims of the brand refresh.

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Differentiation
Rounded corners provide a point of visual differentiation from the other blocky elements on the Design System, such as banners. Making sparing use of rounded corners means that elements with this styling are likely to stand out against elements with sharp corners.

This visual distinction is appropriate for buttons:

• They are something the user can interact with
• They often represent the next step in a process or journey

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Affordance
Rounded corners provide extra affordance to buttons by aligning them more closely with button styles used across the web and digital devices.

The additional styling also means that we would have four visual cues for buttons, rather than three:

• Current buttons rely on: being in a box, with a background colour, and a box-shadow
• Updated buttons will rely on: being a box, with a background colour, a box-shadow and rounded corners

This is especially useful when buttons have very long text, making the button appear more like a banner (and making it more likely to be ignored)

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Visual consistency
Rounded corners create a visual link between the GOV.UK typeface, New Transport, and the layout elements. New Transport uses rounded tails on the ‘T’, ‘L’ and ‘A’ letters, and rounded corners would echo these distinctive elements

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Space saving
On tight layouts where space is at a premium, rounded corners allow users to gauge the gaps between blocks of content that would otherwise need to be spaced further apart. This could prove beneficial when two (or more) buttons appear side by side in a constrained space.

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How rounded should the corners be?
When rounding corners, the following need to be taken into consideration

• The size and padding on our current buttons
• The size of button text
• The box-shadow on the buttons

Because our current button padding is not particularly generous we need to keep the rounded corners conservative. The more rounded the corner, the more padding is needed to ensure text is legible and the button is visually balanced.

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Proposed design

We are proposing adding a modest 3-4px corner radius to the button component.

🔗 Preview link(desktop only)
https://govuk-frontend-pr-6315.herokuapp.com/components/button

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Before: Buttons are square edged and do not stand out against elements such as the file upload

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After: Buttons are clearly differentiated from the file upload component

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We want to know

• Are you using rounded corners anywhere at the moment?
• What do you think of this change?
• How does this change affect your work?
• If we shipped this tomorrow, would you be in a position to update? What work might you need to do?

[TomGNorris]

I'd say that the existing square buttons are a fairly core part of the visual identity of GOV.UK and make it more visually distinct from other design systems.

In some of our user research at Defra there's been a strong theme of trust with our participants needing to visually verify that the site is a government site from key elements that are present. Our findings were that the following were viewed as key elements identifying the site as a GOV.UK site:

1. Crown trust mark in header
2. Distinctive font (GDS Transport)
3. Prominent Green buttons in services
4. Strong black branding e.g. in header (since deprecated)
5. Distinctive interactive element style in forms

Whilst we didn't test the squareness of the buttons, it does show that they are a key consideration. I would also argue that trust is more important than friendliness or softness in the design system's principles.

Have we considered options like adding additional drop shading to the right side of the button to visually separate adjacent buttons (which do not occur frequently)?

I would argue that the items above labelled 'Affordance' and 'Space saving' are not strong arguments as the buttons rarely or never would be spaced so closely in practical use with the existing design system.

Content guidelines for the button component discourage long text, so would argue that rather than changing the button design to avoid the banner confusion we should be more specific about giving examples for button content being short complete actions and suggest using links for longer content with more context.

If we were to round the corners I agree keeping it minimal would be preferable to maintain a distinctive look and feel. I would still argue that other elements in the design system deliberately avoid rounding and to round the corners makes the buttons less consistent or aligned with elements such as the header/footer, table elements, form elements etc.

[benhugs]

I think this is fair to raise but I would argue the toss. Users associate the Gov.uk brand strongly with the distinct features you've listed, presumably because it's what they have learnt to associate with gov.uk having used it regularly for a long time. It's become part of their brand recognition, which is great. But does that mean you keep styles the same forever, for fear of upsetting this? What if the styles weren't quite right in the first place, for reasons other than strong brand identity? Or they become out of step with the wider landscape of website 'affordances' as mentioned, which do evolve slowly over time?

For me, they key is to make small changes incrementally to minimise detrimetal effect on brand recognition when introducing changes that impact visual style. Plenty of UR I've seen recently across multiple projects suggests that particularly younger generations are easily overwhelmed or made to feel intimidated or anxious by gov.uk. So anything that helps steer us to a 'friendlier' feel is a priority in my mind for that reason. Just my 2p :)

[joelanman]

I think it's a good change, in particular to differentiate from other ui elements, and because rounded buttons are more common on other sites and apps people use.

[ReedSoftware]

I agree with the entirety of what @TomGNorris has put - it looks less govuk, I don't think affordance/space saving are a strong argument given how much emphasis the design system puts on ensuring good layout and spacing, and I don't think I've yet come across a button with such long text that I've confused it with something else - if they're out there, they're a rarity.

[owenatgov]

Comments from x-gov slack:

I'm not sure this helps as it is such a subtle effect I had difficulty in seeing it. Are we seeing evidence of users not being able to find buttons or clicking random text? If so it feels like the issue may be elsewhere like the page being too busy or the button text not being clear enough?
Also, shouldn't any rounding be made to scale when the user scales their font? Else what is a very subtle change will be lost for those users entirely.
So rather than:
border-radius: 4px
Instead do:
border-radius: 0.21em;

[marian-avery]

As a visually impaired user, I really struggle to see the difference. I don't think it's necessarily a bad change for the reasons @joelanman said, but if you mean it I think it needs to be more rounded. I totally understand this could create problems for text within buttons, so please do lots of testing.

[owenatgov]

Comment from x-gov slack:

Adding a radius to buttons would probably bring it even closer to the NHS Design System:
https://service-manual.nhs.uk/design-system/components/buttons
Given GOV.UK Design System now heavily leans towards blue as it's primary colour, it's getting even harder to differentiate the two - but I'll save that debate for another day! 🙂

[nhsbsa-sthil]

Thanks @owenatgov! ❤️

[nhsbsa-sthil]

Obviously what I said on Slack was a bit tongue in cheek - but I do think eventually there needs to be a discussion on the bigger vision between the GOV and NHS Design Systems. The two are slowly becoming VERY similar from an aesthetic point of view.

Appreciate that patterns / components within them have different contexts / user needs but..... putting my very radical hat 🎩 on...... would there be benefit from merging the two with the understanding that you could amend colours, logos etc...?

I believe there are already discussions in NHS land around becoming 'closer' to GOV:

nhsuk/nhsuk-frontend#952

I assume it's a similar discussion around there being a need for 'admin' type patterns / components within the GOV Design System i.e. could there be 'clinical' patterns / components within the GOV Design System?

[owenatgov]

Ok so my response to this is me also putting my own radical hat in in response to your radical hat. Radical hat lads. By that I mean what I'm about to say doesn't necessarily represent the views of the GOV.UK design system team...

The idea of a 'whitelabelled' govuk-frontend has come up a few times over the lifetime of govuk-frontend. The nature of it being an open source project means we can't really stop people using it so long as they follow the govuk brand policy rules. This is also beneficial for both the public secotr digital space wholesale and us in terms of feedback and measurement. The new brand has underlined this somewhat because existing patterns of reuse are now harder to apply. The similarities between new gov.uk and nhs aren't lost on us and were noted during the early days of the brnad project.

I make no comments about internal discussions that have or have not happened about whitelabelling so assume for now that it's not happening, however this seems like a compelling case for.

[ch-ncolley]

Generally in favour of more affordance so buttons look like buttons more.

I think this is an edge case might be worth exploring:

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Semi related I put together this modification for a client which rounds everything (which can be a little silly), maybe not useful but sharing just incase:

https://github.com/NickColley/govuk-frontend-rounded
https://govuk-frontend-rounded.netlify.app/

[ch-ncolley]

If we shipped this tomorrow, would you be in a position to update? What work might you need to do?

At Companies House we consume GOV.UK Frontend via a CDN so most services could be updated reasonably easily.

However, there's a LOT of legacy code where partial non-ideal migrations have taken place for example running GOV.UK Elements, GOV.UK Frontend Toolkit alongside GOV.UK Frontend. So for those places we'd likely have to do a bunch of work retrofiting that but that's more of a technical debt consideration since it's has not been paid down.

[Lori-T]

Last year, when I created the Accessibility Advent Calendar 2024 using an adapted version of the prototype kit and design system, I used buttons for the advent calendar “doors.”
This caused an unexpected issue: a strobing effect, similar to an optical illusion where squares and black dots appear. My colleague and dear friend @vickytnz suggested rounding the edges and spacing the buttons out a little. That simple change made the effect much less noticeable.
It’s probably a niche scenario since most services won’t have multiple buttons grouped together - let alone 25 - but it’s worth considering as a point in favour of rounding edges.

[frankieroberto]

My slightly crude interpretation is that we perceive curved buttons (and UI elements generally) as more friendly, and square ones as more serious, based upon our real-world experience that sharp edges can be painful, and so child-friendly things tend to have rounded edges.

All very subjective, but might help to explain how a small difference in the border radius can end up feeling quite different?

For what it's worth, I believe that NHS decided to go with rounded buttons in part to give them more affordance when there are lots of other square boxes on the page (which the NHS had more of compared to GOV.UK)? Will try and see if there is any further documentation on this, but it was a good while ago!

[Ciandelle]

Generally I like the rounded corners as it signals to my brain that the element is interactive without conscious thought. I also totally agree with the idea that @frankieroberto has that we do crudely see curved as warmer and friendlier. It's not to say that we should avoid hard lines, but maybe look at where we can soften to be more inviting?

I also feel that given that GDS's overall aim is to have a multichannel approach some unity and uniformity between components UI such as rounded corners across web, mobile and app. It also builds an unconscious link between the three (and potentially more) channels that we have in my mind.

I'd also love to see this being tested and am happy to get involved if you need help 😄

[onupama1]

I would suggest testing with neurodiverse audience. Being neurodiverse myself with my UXR hat on, just looking at the visuals without reading the discussions, following are my first impressions:

1. First impression - Stressed out by confusion.
   Why? - visually too many patterns squares, rounded corners, colours.
   Outcome - visually unable to prioritise or focus on task

2. 2nd impression - ok I get it but it did not make much difference to me again visually. e.g. I see the submit button below or comment box here has rounded corners now but I did not notice it before.
   Why? - as a neurodivergent it's not easy to notice difference easily
   Outcome - Doesn't make a difference

3. As time passed, the rounded corners soothed me and even without reading the comments I felt the difference between the harshness of squares and welcome effect of rounded corners. But then I read the comment, rounded corners make letters cluttered and that's true, So we kind of need it spread out.

Comment:

1. We have a combination of experienced and inexperienced users. Experienced users even with neurodiversity, I think it will be a visual help, i.e. my point (3) above.

2. With inexperienced or new users I think it might be sometimes similar to my points 1 & 2 above even when in GOV.UK services we try to have one question per page or simplify a page as much as possible.

3. I think there needs to be a balance between introducing patterns and cognitive overload especially when users:
   a. Often have a lot of information to understand and respond to even when the pages are simplified
   b. If we change to rounded corners across everything, we need to make sure it's readable. But I agree "when buttons have very long text, making the button appear more like a banner (and making it more likely to be ignored)"
   c. On occasions where in a single page we are using both squares and rounded corners to give visual cues into different elements, i.e. "Rounded corners provide a point of visual differentiation from the other blocky elements "
   it can be quite confusing and runs the risk of cognitive overload. Hence we need to ensure what do they relate to, e.g. rounded corners are buttons and squared corners are banners or etc etc
   d. How does it effect teams?

   • Sometimes we may work in spaces where we might have to change/test in sprints new patterns.
   • Team may not always have resources to do so despite the ask
   • Everyone in a team is not always up to date with new patterns/elements or clear about why a change or new pattern is introduced and what effect it has. This may lead to more time spent or confusion. E.g. product team is clear about rounded corners and makes changes to a page but then a user asks a SME what does this mean?

   Hence, it might be good to have some clear demarcations and introductions in simple short ways (I do not dare to say language :))

[LK-XD]

Although rounded buttons are a well recognsied and recommended signifier supported by UX professionals, it's hard to justify in .gov's instance because the combination of very clear action copy, a dropshow and surrounding content/context may well be effective enough. So unless there is supporting evidence of the problem you are trying to solve its hard to justify. Other less high profile orgs may A/B test this on a key journey and measure it.

[murrlipp]

I feel like adding rounded corners to a button but not other elements, whilst making them look visually distinct, might also make them look visually inconsistent?

Most other UIs with rounded elements have rounding applied consistently to multiple elements to give a cohesive aesthetic, which I feel wouldn't be the case if it were only applied to the buttons. An example is the comment box I'm typing into right now. Everything is rounded - it feels cohesive.

Also, this is the sort of very subtle difference that would make me question whether or not I was actually on a scam site pretending to be GOV.UK.

[EliseRobinson]

I agree, this is introducing inconsistency and uncertainty.

[andysellick]

I agree with the earlier comment that rounding the corners feels fundamentally less like GOV.UK. Personally I think that the current button design stands out from the crowd of other design systems, and I don't find it difficult to distinguish the existing buttons from other Design System elements/components. As a developer I also worry about the extra page weight that more CSS adds (yes, it's small, but it all adds up).

I think it's important to have conversations about things like this and challenge assumptions but I hope that this work proceeds based on a real user need for change.

[KatharineBeer]

Ooh this is an interesting idea; I’ve mildly assumed the GOV.UK brand stays very straight-edged to feel subtly authoritative and serious, so it'll be really interesting to see how this kind of tweak the tone over time. I’ll see if the designer at National Careers Service can pop over and share any evidence they have, as I know they chose to move to rounded buttons.

It reminds me of something from Susan Weinschenk’s "100 More Things Every Designer Should Know About People" which I'll paste below in case it's helpful or interesting for anyone?

#101: PEOPLE PREFER CURVED SHAPES
Have you ever wondered why clients always prefer logos with curves rather than logos with interesting angles? Have you noticed that your favorite smartphones, tablets, and laptops tend to have rounded corners? What’s the big deal with those curves and rounded corners?
People prefer objects with curves—a preference that’s evident even in brain scans. This field of study is called neuroaesthetics.

Does The Couch Have Curves?
While Moshe Bar was the director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital he and his team used images of everyday and abstract objects to see if people had a preference for objects with curves. In one of their early studies, Bar and Maital Neta (2006) showed people 140 pairs of objects. Some objects were concrete, such as watches or couches (the A objects in Figure 1.1), some were abstract (the B objects), and some had both curves and edges (the C objects). The C objects acted as baseline controls.

FIGURE 1.1 Original images used by Moshe Bar (https://faculty.biu.ac.il/~bar-lab/
People gave higher “liking” ratings to the objects with curves. Bar and Neta’s theory was that the sharp and angled images conveyed a sense of threat.

Does The Balance Of The Image Matter?
Paul Silvia and Christopher Barona (2009) wanted to see if it mattered whether the objects in an image were balanced (Figure 1.2) or unbalanced (Figure 1.3). Balanced or not, people still preferred the curved objects.
Nike, Apple, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and dozens of other well-known brands use one or more curves in their logos, so they’ve obviously done their design homework.

Curves Stimulate The Brain
Ed Connor and Neeraja Balachander from John Hopkins University (unpublished) took this idea into a neuroimaging lab. They used an abstract shape similar to the shape on the left in Figure 1.6, and then made a series of similar but elongated shapes like those in the rest of Figure 1.6.

FIGURE 1.6 Curved and rounded shapes versus elongated shapes.
Not only did people prefer the softly rounded shape like the one on the left, there was more brain activity in the visual cortex when they viewed shapes that were more curved and more rounded.

Takeaways
People prefer curves.

When you’re creating a logo, incorporate some form of curve in the design.
When you’re creating areas of color on a screen, consider using a “swoosh” or curved shape.
When you’re designing actual products—such as smartphones, remote controls, medical devices, or other hand-held items—use curved surfaces.

[matteason]

I think it's difficult to judge the impact of this change in isolation, without also considering other styling changes like the button green changing, borders being added to tags etc

To try and help, I've made a prototype that lets you tweak various bits of styling on-the-fly, like button radius, input radius, tag styling etc

https://matteason.github.io/govuk-rounded-prototype/

My thoughts after playing with that, in no particular order:

Buttons

I'm worried that the new green looks too washed out compared to the old one, and it could look disabled. This might only be obvious when flicking back and forth between the current and new greens though. Next to a secondary button, I think the secondary button looks too prominent in comparison, because the text has higher contrast:

The new GOV.UK palette has a "Green Shade 25%" which is much closer to the current green and gives a lot more contrast:

Adding a 1px border to the buttons could help with affordance, versus just a border radius alone. It also gives the secondary button more contrast against the background

Tags

The new tag styling (with coloured borders) could make tags and buttons look too alike if buttons have borders too (or they could look like disabled inputs?):

Tags could be rounded off completely to make them more distinct from buttons:

Inputs

If buttons are rounded, should inputs be rounded off too, so we're consistent about interactive controls being rounded (as @murrlipp alluded to)?

[SuhailHussain]

Agree that inputs should also be rounded if we're going down this route.

[Hugh-Gummett]

If you do go with rounded corners then the border bottom should be removed. It looks awkward and unbalanced where it meets the rounded corner and visually seems to make the bottom corners appear wider than the top ones.

I don't think border bottom needed on the current buttons either.

[SuhailHussain]

Agree with this thinking. The bottom border makes the bottom of the button look less round than the top.

[AnielloCaiazza976]

While I appreciate the intent behind the proposed rounded buttons as part of a broader brand refresh, I remain concerned about the potential impact on visual consistency across the GOV.UK design system.
Currently, the button style aligns well with the overall GOV.UK brand identity, one that is purposefully minimal, authoritative, and distinct. Introducing rounded corners may seem like a small change, but it risks creating a visual disconnect with other core components such as tags, banners, and input fields, which retain a more angular, utilitarian aesthetic.
Consistency is key in a design system, especially one used across multiple government services. The GOV.UK brand has earned trust through its clarity and coherence, and any deviation from that, even in the name of modernisation should be carefully weighed against the risk of fragmenting the user experience.
Moreover, GOV.UK has long set the standard for digital government design globally. Its identity is not just about aesthetics but about usability, accessibility, and clarity. Rounded buttons may align with broader design trends, but GOV.UK’s strength lies in leading with purpose, not following fashion.
Unless this change is part of a wider, cohesive update to all UI elements, it could feel more like a stylistic anomaly than a meaningful evolution. I’d advocate for a more holistic approach to any visual refresh, ensuring that updates reinforce rather than dilute the brand’s unique and trusted character.

[AlanHONS]

FYI The ONS Design System has had subtle rounded corners to its buttons for a long while now.
See https://service-manual.ons.gov.uk/design-system/components/button

The ONS Design team can be reached at ons.design.system@ons.gov.uk if you wanted to discuss the history of that more

[maxgds]

Are you using rounded corners anywhere at the moment?

Not that I recall

What do you think of this change?

I'm not a designer so take my views with that in mind. I think they look good, more modern and more buttony when they are rounded. I think it's the sort of thing that will meet resistance, and in future when people look back they'll be shocked that buttons were straight for so long.

That said, it doesn't seem to meet a direct user need as such. And it has downsides like bloating CSS albeit only a tiny amount, and requiring potentially a lot of checking to make sure it works in context where buttons already exist.

How does this change affect your work?

See previous para - we'd potentially need to do a lot of work on GOV.UK to check where buttons exist and whether they look ok. In fact there's a chance we'd uncover buttons not using the correct styling that we'd need to bring in line so they don't wind up as massive visible outliers instead of slight technical debt.

If we shipped this tomorrow, would you be in a position to update? What work might you need to do?

I would strongly recommend that for a change this size you consider having feature flags available for a good while. We'd need to find time to audit what already exists, and wouldn't want to lose other updates because of being blocked from updating to this version.

[EliseRobinson]

We are using lots of rounded corners in the GOV.UK app, because everything tends to be rounded in native software for mobile platforms. It moves our app UI away from looking like part of the GOV.UK universe, so we're having to lean on other things to make the connection, like colour (big blue headers!) and type. I mention this because we might want to consider app to web journeys as part of these changes. What should look the same after you've jumped from app to web (or vice versa)? What should look different to help you know where you are? (Our research has shown that users are unsure about when they are "in the app" vs "in a browser").

Personally, I don't like the inconsistency between some things being rounded and others not. It feels messy and indecisive. I'm also not convinced that rounded corners and the dot as a brand device are that linked. The dot is a full circle - completely different and a standalone graphic 'thing'.

[michaelgallagher]

to tack on to this point, we're exploring whether to rebuild + redesign the NHS app in native code (is currently mostly a website). as part of that, we're looking at how much we can rely on the default styles from apple and google, rather than trying to recreate the visual appearance of the current NHS design system. it is early days, but we've done 4 rounds of prototype testing so far and the overwhelming consensus is that no one is fussed about buttons or form elements looking of the platform. in fact, it appears to increase user trust in the app dramatically if it looks of iOS or of android, even if that makes it look less like nhs.uk etc.

we're experimenting quite a bit with how to introduce the NHS brand (same as @EliseRobinson really – colours, type, use of language and labelling, etc.) but for e.g. iOS, i am fairly well convinced things are going to be round.

we also need to consider app <> web journey and we have absolutely not figured that out yet. same concerns as elise.

i realise this isn't the primary question being asked in this issue and the NHS buttons are already rounded. just thought it was worth tossing into the mix.

[querkmachine]

in fact, it appears to increase user trust in the app dramatically if it looks of iOS or of android, even if that makes it look less like nhs.uk etc.

[Personal opinion, not team's]

This feels like a point that gets so easily lost in organisations. Users almost always want apps to have consistency with their platform of choice, not consistency within a brand.

As an end user, I want apps on iPhones to follow the design and interaction conventions of iPhones! I don't care if the same organisation's Android app looks different to the iPhone one, because I'm not using the Android app!

[michaelgallagher]

@querkmachine that seems to be the general consensus we've been getting from pretty much everyone we've done research with, which at this point covers a really wide range of ages, levels of digital skill/confidence, and access needs. aligning to platform conventions appears to increase fluency in how to operate the app, reduces cognitive burden, decreases task time, increases trust ... etc. (i could go on)

[SuhailHussain]

How rounded should they be?
I think could experiment with a higher border radius and get rid of the bottom border to really create some visual distinction. More than the 4px(?) examples above but less than the more extreme examples.

Either way I don't think you lose a sense of brand by doing this change (especially if it is a 4px radius, feels so slight when you're viewing a page as a whole and not zoomed into a component)

Also not sure about the comment about it making GOV.UK more "friendly", do users actually think this?

[EliseRobinson]

Just want to jump in here with a warning around larger radius values. It makes resizing containers (with larger type etc) much more complicated and messy. We've moved away from them in the app, at least.

[daniel-teanby]

Square buttons are a core part of the GOV.UK identity. I imagine a change like this (albeit a subtle one) could negatively impact user trust and increase the perception of the GOV.UK site being a potential scam/impersonator, specifically for users who are familiar with government websites and services.

In recent open banking research, there's been a lot of conversation around lack of trust in the government and worries of getting scammed, so it'll be important to consider this risk during future research and testing of the proposed changes.

Having said that, exploring these changes is a positive step toward evolving the GOV.UK Design System and ensuring it aligns with the new brand look and feel 🙌

[alunrhysbeynon]

From my perspective, although buttons have a box-shadow I've observed users (on mobile and on desktop) trying to click the tag component because they look too similar to buttons. So anything that can make buttons more distinguishable from tags is a positive in my opinion.

[matteason]

Yeah I'm worried this is going to become more of a problem with the forthcoming tag style changes, where they're getting a border too. The grey tag in particular looks almost identical to Chrome's default button styling. I think even making GOV.UK buttons looks more distinct may not solve that, because the tags still look button-y

[CharlotteDowns]

Feedback from internal crit session

1. Could rounded corners be perceived to be more “skeuomorphic” or “button-like”?
2. Could the rounded corners feel less “formal” for government?
3. Although this does align to the new vision for GOV.UK to be “friendlier” etc.
4. How would the rounded corners look for other states?
5. Trust in gov services and “brand” recognition is something to consider.
6. Rounded corners will feel more consistent with other government channels, like apps.
7. Rounded corners follow similar styling to NHS design system buttons.
8. ONS design system also uses subtle rounded corners.
9. Late comment: could the “friendlier” rounded corners be appropriate for internal systems which also follow gov styling? Some of which handle quite serious government decisions for members of the public.
10. There is work being done to add an interstitial spinner to buttons — could these changes affect that?
11. The bottom shadow could have a different impact on rounded buttons. It might just be me, but I think it potentially looks “heavier” or more “blobbed” as it curves to the sides. Might be worth experimenting with the bottom border present on the rounded version?
12. Is it worth reconsidering the style of the button and whether the rounded-corners button works well with bottom shadow?
13. Is it worth reconsidering the style of the button and whether the rounded-corners button works well with bottom shadow? (duplicate note)
14. Exploring these changes is a positive step toward evolving the GOV.UK Design System and ensuring it aligns with the new brand look and feel.
15. I like the radius you’ve used because it will work well when buttons are inside containers.
16. I think it’s a subtle but worthwhile evolution and support it.
17. I think the chosen radius is a good one.
18. Thinking about native mobile components that apple/google use and buttons are largely rounded, I think this is a positive move. Users already have this mental model in their minds when it comes to CTAs/ buttons.
19. Something to investigate is what is the degree of roundness - does this flex depending on the state?

[CharlotteDowns]

Hi, thank you all for taking the time to respond and engage with this discussion. It's been really useful to hear your thoughts.

Our next steps

Based on your feedback we have not built this into our future release planning. We are going to keep this discussion open for any further conversation until we come to work on it again.

We will look to understand the thoughts that have been shared and provide our responses to common themes within the discussion.

[wardt7]

Hey, just to add another piece to the pie, here's my feedback:

Are you using rounded corners anywhere at the moment?

In a legacy casework system we use Material UI, which as you may imagine is incredibly rotund. We've not had any negative feedback about this; we are interestingly moving to Carbon UI for our casework system which has straight edges which I believe has received reasonably good feedback.

What do you think of this change?

My feeling is... eeeeeeeeh?

I think there's a few things I can think of.

Non-technical

The first (big) one is that I really think we're vastly overestimating how much people care about the rotundness of corners, at least on its own. I've generally found presentation is viewed as a whole, and this change feels too narrow in scope to really make a dent. Like the other comments say, you'd absolutely have to apply this consistently across the board and perhaps make other changes too to really adjust the whole site "feel". I highly doubt anyone has specifically said in user research that the buttons being straight-edged feels off.

Secondly, what are we defining as "friendliness" here? I think there's a big difference between user friendliness in the sense of "I can use this comfortably" and user friendliness in the sense of "it makes me feel warm and fuzzy"? If it's the latter, I would question whether aiming for that is super wise; at least for me, I actually value GOV.UK looking "serious" and official, it makes me feel like what I'm doing is important and clear and isn't trying to "butter me up" so to speak. If it's the former, then I can actually believe the change might be good when applied consistently for users less familiar to GOV.UK, because it perhaps aligns better with standard expectations online that most stuff is more "round".

Technical

Main one - don't use pixels, you're going to fail to render well at high or low zoom levels otherwise. I know Github uses rems for instance which is relative to screen size, and you'll likely need to do a fair amount of browser testing on this as rendering can be a bit inconsistent between browsers from my experience. What looks good at a normal zoom size might look too round zoomed in, or not round at all zoomed out!

How does this change affect your work?

Unlikely to affect anything we'd be working on

If we shipped this tomorrow, would you be in a position to update? What work might you need to do?

As with all visual changes, it's difficult for smaller organisations to keep up like our own - I think one of my fears is that constant changes to the feel of GOV.UK will produce inconsistencies between organisations, and there's not really enough enforcement or resource to resolve this at the moment. It took us quite a while to get round to the last set of changes due to competing priorities and I imagine it'd be the same with this.

[LydiaValtindOC]

Some great comments above.

If the purpose is "To make the GOV.UK brand "friendlier" - is that part of a wider strategy? Is GOV.UK, or the UK Government as a whole, planning to have a friendlier tone?

If anything recently, there's been a trend toward sounding more negative:

"Modern politics is overwhelmingly negative in tone, and there is widespread belief that the tone of politicians is becoming increasingly more emotional and negative among academics and journalists."

I'd like to see a consistent strategy - if the branding on GOV.UK is becoming more friendly, then the tone of content across GOV.UK, and from comms teams, policy and ministers should match.