Today Iām going to share with you my thoughts and predictions on web design trends weāll see in 2025.
Itās important to understand what is happening in the wider landscape of design on the web. Understanding what trends lie ahead will allow you to get in early and benefit in the long run for those trends that will stick around.
A lot of people will fail to to see the wider trends because theyāre stuck on the same websites all day.
Most web design trends come and go but the ones that stick forge the standard of the web for a long time.
So weāre going to cover:
So if you want to benefit from a potential long term trend that could help you stand out then keep reading.
Animation on the web hasnāt always been the best.
There was the rough implementation of Flash early on (before Apple killed it). And then the rise of JavaScript animation libraries came in the fill the void.
Neither were particularly great for user experience.
But then CSS improved and got a lot of animation powers with transitions and keyframes.
But with the latest news of Webflow buying the company Greensock (the company responsible for the web GSAP library) I believe weāll be seeing more designers start to incorporate animation into their work and design systems.
Weāre thrilled to share that Webflow has acquired @greensock, a rich JavaScript library and toolset that helps designers and developers create and manage professional-grade animations on the web.
GSAP will take Webflow Interactions to the next level, while continuing to beā¦ pic.twitter.com/MleppSTieh
ā Webflow (@webflow)
October 15, 2024
Both CSS and JavaScript solutions have continued to improve over the years. And we see more and more these sort of micro animations that add a lot of delight to the user experience.
Making apps and websites feel more rich and giving the user clearer feedback.
Love them or hate them I think dark modes will get more attention this year.
Although the science around dark mode can be argued and some people just donāt see the benefit.
Thereās no denying that people want a dark mode for any app or website they use. I know I do.
Dark mode hasnāt really been implemented to itās fullest though. And with more and more push around web accessibility and accessibility in general I think weāll see more places where dark mode is added or improved on top of what already exists.
Although mobile rules the web thereās still a large portion of users that spend most of their time on the web either on a laptop of some sort of desk top setup.
People with super wide monitors and power users who have multiple screens are often forgotten about.
What tends to happen is a websites design will just bound to a particular grid max width and then the ends will stretch off into infinity.
Making use of more whitespace by scaling and positioning content as the screen gets larger is something I think designers will look at more.
Also with the rise of AI tools and a lot of AI tools that work through web browsers I think the desktop application like interface will see a return.
Look at tools like Runway and MidJourney that make full use of large screens for AI video editing and image editing.
Performance has always been important for user experience but with more and more AI tools coming out people need performance to be absolutely spot on.
Designers will have to think about user interaction and speed perception in their designs from the offset.
It wonāt cut it to just throw on a loading spinner and call it a day.
People are relying on AI web tools for productivity, increased output and to supplement their skillset.
They want the native performance of desktop and mobile applications with the accessibility of the web.
Performance canāt be an afterthought and has to be built in from the first steps in design.
As amazing as AI tools are getting with creating web apps and designs thereās still a longing for the human element in designs.
I think a lot of people still want feel that human, imperfect balance in design still.
Embracing asymmetry and imperfection in design could prove to be a popular trend to stand out from all the uniform looking designs that come out of generative tools.
See websites like:
The craftsmanship of designers and developers could prove to be a difference with small details bringing designs to life in ways AI canāt really manage just yet.
And off the other end of the spectrum we have functional minimalism.
When efficiency and familiarity are important (think about why Microsoft Word has barely changed over the years) then a more minimal and functional UI is what people will want.
Do all shadcn/ui apps look the same? No. They donāt have to.
Think of shadcn/ui as a coloring template - it provides the outlines & structure. Black & white. A starting point.
You get to fill it with your own unique colors and styles.
And itās really easy. Hereās an example: pic.twitter.com/wMpTYZPMn6
ā shadcn (@shadcn)
October 25, 2024
People still want a branded feel but they donāt want to have to relearn a bunch of UI concepts just to get a job done.
There are many web based UI libraries out there that do a great job of creating these UI components people are used to.
Designers can use these as bases to create branded systems that serve the user with minimal cognitive friction.
This is a bit of a wild take but I think weāre going to start seeing voice user interfaces start to grow.
Weāve already seen how Chat GPT popularised the chat based interface and I think the natural extension of this is to have better incorporation with voice control.
The open ai realtime api is sick! I hooked it up to control my browser so I could browse the web with my voice š¤Æ pic.twitter.com/sCsNOz1OXr
ā Sawyer Hood (@sawyerhood)
October 4, 2024
We already start to see tools using voice in real time like Chat GPT and Gemini. People can take text input through voice and feed it into the AI tools to get responses but what if the translation part didnāt gave to happen?
Having UI tools that integrate voice more seamlessly and with quicker responses could be a changer especially now most of the web is mobile. Devices with baked in microphones and speakers.
It could also prove a real progression for those with accessibility needs.
If I was building a new product or redesigning a website etc in 2025 Iād look at each of these and see which trend could benefit from early adoption in the long run.
I definitely think performance should always be at the forefront of design because it doesnāt matter how aesthetic something is if itās not fast.
People donāt put up with bad performance now and wonāt put up with poor performance in 2025.
And I would start experimenting with what is achievable with the tools available for animation to raise the bar on the user experience through enhanced micro interactions.
Not every trends sticks around but some do and they end up changing the landscape of the web for the long run.
Nobody talks about responsive web design now because itās just the default.
Thanks again š
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