How can you say for certain there’s no business impact? I can imagine for really premium brands, this kind of attention to detail makes a difference.
And most website lack more important features than shadows even premium brands. Sometimes premium brands in particular value looks over function.
Having sat through quite a lot of end-user sessions, I would make three points:
1. users do often notice these differences subconsciously, even if they say they don’t. Say “which do you prefer” and they’ll tell you the one with the nicer shadow (for example) even if they can’t articulate why.
2. When a site is more aesthetically pleasing, users report greater satisfaction with the product and find it more usable. Of course, there’s diminishing returns here, but premium brands may get more returns on these subtle extras.
3. Developers tend to prefer sparse, lo-fi designs more than non-developers.
That’s how. I guess it’s time to tell these guys what they were missing all these years.
/* https://www.apple.com/store */
.rf-ccard-content {
box-shadow: 2px 4px 12px rgb(0 0 0 / 8%);
}
PS. And gucci not having an https certificate is another example how "premium brands" often have completely unusable or simply non-functioning sites. Still sells.
For those that do have data, they’ve decided spending millions on it is worth it.