I don't think cuteness anything to do with it. It's when style interferes with the functionality, that people start to get annoyed. But that applies to any asp

I don't think cuteness anything to do with it. It's when style interferes with the functionality, that people start to get annoyed. But that applies to any aspect really: Animations, Minimalism / Skeuomorphism, Simplicity / Complexity... Many apps successfully introduce cuteness through iconography and illustrations. Eg. Duolingo, Bear Notes, TunnelBear. Also look at Panic who have a (very mild) playful aesthetic in their power-user development tools: https://nova.app https://nova.app