An aesthetic that reads as human rather than institutional: palettes shifted toward cream and amber, softened corners and shadows, and copy that sounds like a person.
Swap the blue-grays for warm neutrals and the product stops feeling like an admin panel.
Warmth lives mostly in color temperature and copy tone. Rounded corners are the least of it. The failure mode is performative friendliness: exclamation marks, mascots, confetti. A warm interface is a calm host, not an entertainer.