The world of web design is an ever evolving one. And, with a new year upon us so are the web design trends of 2025.
So, we here at Showit thought it fitting to take a second and share the things that we’re seeing that are helping sites really stand out. And, to be honest, a lot of it is pretty surprising.
Some stuff I’m noticing would never have been on my web design trends bingo card. Yet, there here for the world to see and probably also question, “how did this become a thing?”
So, let’s get into it. But, first a word about how to use the web design trends of 2025 for your business.
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Web design trends are fun to see. They’re kind of like a new shiny toy we’d get as a kid.
But, just because they’re neat doesn’t necessarily mean you need to immediately go out and try to implement them on your website.
Your goal should always be first and foremost based on your specific user type AND what you’re hoping they’ll do on your website.
If the web design trends of 2025 are relevant to your users and your goals then by all means have fun. But, make sure that you’re at least asking the question.
All good website strategy starts at the end. What do I mean by that?
You need to ask yourself, “If I had to pick just one thing for a website visitor to do on my site what would that be?”
That could be sign up for a phone call or purchase a product. The answer all depends on you and your business.
But, whatever it is, start there and then go backwards. Along the way, if the web design trends of 2025 help to get a user to that endpoint, you know you’re good.
Okay, that’s my soapbox. Now let’s get into the trends.
As AI becomes a mainstay in our everyday workflows, creatives are trying more and more to make sure that the stuff they’re making looks human.
The best way to do that is by adding imperfections. You can almost instantly tell that something was made by AI because it’s too perfect.
The skin of the person looks flawless. There’s a radiant glow to the objects in an image.
The web design trends of 2025 are rebelling against that somewhat. Now, there is a whole other trend of using AI almost exclusively in web design BUT that’s just how trends go 😂 There are juxtapositions and responses.
So, you’ll see some websites that seem to be okay with a messy layout or hand drawn images that look like a 6 year old did them.
That’s not to say that the design decisions weren’t intentional or an afterthought. Some times the best artists are those who know exactly how to make things messy.
That’s what this trend highlights and I’m here for it.
For a while we’ve been seeing web designers make big moves with animations. The bigger the better it seems.
But, one of the web design trends of 2025 seems to be a response to the grand gestures of motions we’ve seen on websites for a while.
I’m talking about what’s called micro interactions.
Micro interactions are subtle little changes or effects that you see when you do something on a website. They might be somewhat imperceptible at first.
A small change to a border on hover. A image that tilts slightly as you scroll. But, they have a way of keeping a user engaged with the website.
Getting and keeping people’s attention is proving to be tougher and tougher. This web design trend of 2025 is a solution to that problem.
It’s probably not a shocker that this next one made it on the web design trends of 2025 list. But, a fair amount of folks are sticking to super bright and super big elements.
It seems like this might be a response to the “mobile first” mentality that’s been such a big mantra over the last decade. It’s not that this trend ignores the need to make responsive websites that work well on any device.
It’s just that they don’t want the mobile version to dictate ALL the design decisions they’re making.
So, you’ll see super bright colors…lime definitely being a fan fav. And you’ll see super big fonts. Web designers will often opt for black letter weights. It’s not uncommon to see a header take up the entire viewport of a browser.
It’s almost like this was a brand designers snarky response to a client asking them to make the logo bigger. Only when they did it that paused and said, “Hey, that’s kind of cool.”
For the longest time, nearly every project I ever did for a client I would hear some version of, “I just don’t want there to be a wall of text.”
“Does this feel like too much text?”
“Should we break up the text here?”
They were so concerned with their users aversion to reading that it dominated a lot of my conversations with them 😂
One of the web design trends of 2025 bucks the convention and says, “Actually, we really like big walls of text.”
One way to keep users interested in your website is to have a steady ebb and flow of pattern interrupt. So, if you’ve got one section where the text on the left and image on the right, the next section will have the text on the right and image on the left.
Since the majority of websites ascribe to the “I don’t want a big wall of text,” mentality, having a big wall of text will actually cause you to stop and engage a bit more.
I’m finding that any time I see this web design trend I’ll slow down my scroll a little bit and spend more time reading what the words say.
So, it actually does the opposite of what my clients feared it would do.
But, be careful. You want the font size to be on the bigger side. If the text is tiny then yeah it’s kind of intimidating.
Do you remember with MySpace how we used to add some code to make a cursor be something other than the little pointer icon? Like a Hello Kitty face or space alien?
Well, people are doing that again just on a whole new level.
This is a trend I honestly didn’t see coming. I thought we put this one to bed for good and yet here we have it showing up in the web design trends of 2025.
To be fair, it’s done WAY more tastefully this time around often as a shape or little color orb that floats near by.
Or in some cases it’s done in a real obnoxious way on purpose 😂 But, that’s done more in like a “we know this is silly but that’s why we did it,” way rather than a “hey, mom! Check out what I just did!” kind of way.
Take or leave it. This is a web design trend we’re seeing more and more of.
No, you did read that, correctly. Websites are once again starting to include sound as the page loads. This is another one of the web design trends of 2025 that I didn’t see coming.
It reminds me of that quote I hear, “My brain is like an internet browser. I have 17 tabs open, 3 of them are frozen and I have no idea where the music is coming from.”
Now, in some cases it’s not just background music. Sometimes it’s little elements that make noise when you click on them. And, I will also say that it’s not as invasive as the last iteration of annoying music with a side of website was.
Often times the controls are very clear OR you opt in to the music rather than it just play automatically.
I’m not really here for this one. But, you never know. I’ve been known to change my mind.
For a while now, the center of every conversation in marketing has been the idea of storytelling. There have been many a marketing department meeting devoted to making sure the strategy is based around “a story.”
This is something Seth Godin has been saying for a long while. But, it seems that everyone else has finally decided to catch up. Now, web designers want in on the action.
You’ll see a lot of pages that feel more like you’re opening a pop-up children book that have little levers on the side to make a little mouse jump up and down.
This is one of the web design trends of 2025 known as scrollytelling. You’ll see it a lot with really well done articles from the WSJ where they’re explaining something that’s going on BUT they’re doing it with interactive elements that change as you scroll down.
A section might start scrolling horizontally for a while and then go back to scrolling vertically. It’s a fun way to keep users engaged AND it can be an effective marketing tool if done right.
Another one of the web design trends of 2025 I’m seeing is how websites aren’t just letting you scroll up and down like you would go from the penthouse floor to the lobby in a hotel.
For the longest time and still very much so today, websites were only thought of as a very portable version of what we already had in print. Even some of the phrases web designers use to describe things like “above the fold,” comes from newspaper verbiage.
But, that’s slowly starting to change. As web designers are realizing the capabilities they have with modern code and browsers it’s starting to become all about getting COMPLETELY immersed into the website.
So, it’s like opening the door to a house and going inside each room and having a look instead of going down an elevator.
It’s a cool trend and as the internet, browsers and coding practices get better it will be more feasible to implement on more and more websites.
A lot of the web design trends of 2025 I’m seeing have a similar thread running through them all. It’s almost like web designers are tired of the rigid rules and structure that the increased popularity of UX design has brought.
For background, UX design stands for user experience. And, user experience is all about the experience a website visitor or app user has. The goal is to keep them from getting frustrated with using the website. Or at least, try as hard as you can to avoid it.
And, listen, I’m for good UX. I’ve talked at length about how you should always keep your user at the forefront of every decision you make with your website.
But, if you take that too far, you start to think that all users are lazy and kind of dumb. One of the most well known books on User Experience is titled, “Don’t Make Me Think,” by Steve Krugg.
It’s a great book. You should read it.
But, I think that many of the web design trends of 2025 are a backlash against HYPER UX design. The kind of UX that paints designers into a corner and forces them to create at the lowest common denominator.
That can be pretty uninspiring and boring. So, designers are pushing back against that. It’s like the punk rock scene in London during the 80’s. It’s an anti-establishment, do whatever we want kind of feel.
If you’re asking me, I don’t think this one will last very long. But, I do like how it’s forcing marketers, designers, developers to evolve they’re thinking for the user.
Maybe some of the assumptions we’ve had about how people want to engage with websites are wrong. Asking those questions will only lead to progress in the field. And, I’m here for it.
So, that’s the world of the web design trends of 2025 as I see it. Tell me the truth. Are you a bit surprised at some of them?
I know I am. But, I think it’s really cool that every year web designers keep pushing the boundaries of what we’re seeing on the internet.
It’s fun to think about how websites will like 10 years from now because sheesh it doesn’t seem like 2015 was that long ago.
But, no matter what the trend, no matter the direction that web design decides to take I’ll leave you with this one thought.
Following the trends doesn’t matter nearly as much as building and solidifying a clear and meaningful brand for yourself. So, yes, be aware of the trends. Try to creatively implement them in your website.
But, at the end of the day, stick as close as you can to being authentically yourself. Then let that show through your business and website as much as possible.