Web design trends for 2025

Software such as Framer are creating avenues, allowing previously difficult and time-consuming processes such as animation to take a fractional effort when compared; so if you’ve noticed more sites having full-scale animation, that’s why! While impressive, it is important not to fall into the trap of overuse—calling back to a classic design principle “if everything is bold, nothing is bold”. Effects that lead the eye and catch the main attention should be sparingly used for the key interest points so that they stand out from the noise.

Such as Figma are constantly updated with new features and plugins that make previously hard to achieve ambitions more achievable. It has gone a long way to improve designers’ understanding of the ways in which developers work, allowing for a smoother transition to a live product.

It’s hard to talk about the progression of the online space and technology without the mention of AI, and as tired as we may be becoming from all the discourse on the subject, the amount of impact it’s having can’t be disputed. We’ll only see more and more applications as it advances; the good, the bad, and the ugly.

As stated above with the decrease in difficulty to pull it off, you can expect to see a lot more moving parts online. Often interactive and playful, animation can be an essential way to involve a user and retain their attention whilst giving the domain a stronger personality through the nature of movement. Depending on usage it could also create a more personalised experience.

If you’ve been around long enough to have enjoyed the somewhat over-the-top flash websites of 2002-2017 (known by some as the ‘digital design revolution’), then you’re in for a treat as this could be its second coming.

One of our favourite examples of this, which is somewhat ahead of the curve in complexity, would be the portfolio of Bruno Simon.

Well-represented by 2024’s Charli XCX ‘Brat’, which sparked conversation, especially within the youth there is an unrest with the over polished and clean aesthetic we have witnessed over the last few years with the rise of SAAS sites. If it helps, you can think of anti-design as ‘digital punk’.

As with the punk movement’s bygone, messaging is important; so, this modern take tends to blend bizarre and unique elements within a more simplistic and uncluttered frame than in the past, which is where it can lean into concepts of brutalism—designs made and broken by their creative usage of complex grids.

This style will be limited in its application due to how polarising it can be. We expect to see this style populating more fringe areas of the web such as the more edgy and experimental fashion brands and magazines.

A good example of this style is madewithmsg.

Expected to appear as a contrast against the increase in AI prevalence and previous minimal polished trends, are sites that adopt a wabi-sabi approach (the art of imperfection).

The landscape has been losing personality and emotive connection for a while, so this year it’s likely we’ll see the return of collage—hand drawn and textured elements, common with physical artwork that has seen human hands.

A couple of good examples for this would be pleese’s website, whose frozen cheesecake range we had the pleasure of branding in 2023! Or the playful application implemented by mediamolecule.

It is important to remember with trends, making something because it’s ‘cool right now’, does not mean it will work for your goals, or for those using the site.

Web design in particular is all about intentional decisions for positive outcomes for a user as much as for yourself. Even when trends do work, the downfall is that they will need to be updated again in the near future.