32 upvotes, 3 direct replies (showing 3)
View submission: Changelog: iOS in-app text sizing, Android comments page update, and more
I tend to find most decisions of this nature are statistics driven. They likely did an A/B test and found that engagement was higher on media with rounded corners than not. Even if it made a 0.5% improvement, that translates into real dollars, so they go with that change. It's also notable that often times, the impact is temporary and engagement reverts to the mean if you were to give it time, but they make the change permanent anyway because they make the adjustment before the reversion.
Comment by tallbutshy at 12/10/2023 at 18:56 UTC
13 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Yeah, but someone must have come up with the idea initially to do the A/B testing. It probably wasn't the average reddit user
Comment by flounder19 at 16/10/2023 at 21:41 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I've seen a lot of rounded corners introduced in my career and none of them were the result of an A/B test. Best you could usually hope for was an A/B test after they were introduced where you weren't allowed to say the old scenario was better.
Comment by jFalner at 25/10/2023 at 12:30 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Reddit is going down the same stupid path as Google. "Don't fix the important things—just slap on a new cosmetic look to make people think you're innovating and improving."
But users aren't that dumb, and that bullshit fools nobody.