Design Trends 2025

The design landscape is constantly changing. 2024 was already characterized by a multitude of trends that combined technology, aesthetics and user-friendliness. These trends continue and go beyond pure visual effects - they reflect how we interact with digital products and what users expect from modern interfaces. Trends are not rigid guidelines, but rather inspirations that can be interpreted individually to create unique designs.

What actually is retro? I think I'll get more than one answer to this question, and that's okay. Every generation looks nostalgically at a bygone phase in its past and wishes for at least parts of that phase to return. In terms of web design, the retro focus is on the early 2000s, which represented the dawn of a futuristic and digital era and a new millennium. Many of these design decisions, which from today's perspective are anything but futuristic, are currently experiencing a comeback. Pixelated fonts, PNG textures that serve as the background for the entire website and sounds that play when buttons are clicked. Maybe not for a plain vanilla startup, but especially for unconventional B2C products, this trend can trigger a lot of nostalgic memories and at least makes for a refreshing change.

Examples:

• 2Advanced Studios
• Dead Startup Toys

From Bootstrap to MaterialYou, the digital design landscape has been significantly shaped by UI frameworks and their components in recent years. In most cases, a quick glance at the CTA in the navigation is enough to recognize whether a website uses the default styling of a UI framework. This is where shadcn/ui is currently gaining ground, which is used particularly in SaaS products and AI tools. Here, one of the distinctive features is the restrained styling, which relies exclusively on a palette of gray tones and keeps buttons mostly black. 

Beyond the visuals, the components all have good usability and accessibility has been considered from the outset. The strength of ShadCN lies in the ability to easily adapt designs to individual requirements without losing consistency.

Beispiele:

• ElevenLabs
• Linear
• Vercel
• Radiocast

Multi-page transitions, which are usually implemented with frameworks such as barba.js or in combination with the new view transitions API, are a significant technical advance that has had a major impact on the design landscape. With traditional websites, all content is reloaded and rendered when a page is changed, which often leads to abrupt and static transitions. With multi-page transitions, however, these transitions can be animated in a smooth and visually appealing way, creating a seamless transition between pages. This opens up new design possibilities that give websites an app-like look and feel and are therefore also used on our own site. Splash screens are often used to complement transitions, emphasize branding or make loading times more pleasant through visual effects.

Examples:

• The Web Can Do What!?
• Stripe Press
• Nod Coding Bootcamp
• Schulqualität Hamburg
• F7 Website

Fortunately, accessibility is not a trend that will be over after a few years. The topic is becoming increasingly important, which is due to the fact that it was long overdue and is now becoming mandatory for many companies thanks to legislation such as the Accessibility Improvement Act (ADA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Many companies have already recognized this trend and optimized their sites for accessibility, significantly improving usability for all users.

A few years ago, it was mainly government websites that were considered good examples of accessible design. There are now numerous companies, particularly in the e-commerce, banking and healthcare sectors, that are following accessibility guidelines in their design.

I find the implementation of the criteria in a visually appealing design particularly exciting, as accessibility is still perceived by many designers as a limitation of their creative freedom and there are more and more beautiful examples that show how it can be done.

Examples:

• Monzo
• Vision Australia
• Britische Regierung (gov.uk)

3D design is also more than just a trend, as browsers and user hardware have improved considerably in recent years, which means that almost anything can now be rendered and played in the browser. This development is reinforced by numerous providers such as Rive or Spline, which make it possible to create 3D graphics in the browser itself and embed them on websites. But it also goes beyond that, because with Three.js and the necessary know-how, 3D experiences, simulations and games can be realized that convey an unusually immersive feeling that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. In addition to these more playful use cases, 3D is used particularly in the e-commerce sector when it comes to allowing users to personalize or configure a product. Large providers such as Nike and Ikea in particular are investing in this level of personalization to motivate their customers to buy their products.

Examples:

• Nike By You
• ChainGPT Labs
• Slosh Seltzer

Conclusion

Current design trends combine technology, aesthetics and user-friendliness in different ways. From nostalgic retro tech and minimalist UI frameworks to immersive 3D experiences. However, an even stronger development is emerging from this - the user-centered design principle and thus the needs of users are increasingly coming to the fore and topics such as accessibility are becoming more and more important. The question for the future is what influence AI tools and their implementation in common design tools and on the design landscape will have. Personally, I'm excited to see what the next few years will bring and expect the web design landscape to become increasingly diverse and creative with new possibilities and tools.