Web design is continuously evolving, reflecting emerging technologies and changing cultural sensibilities. In 2025, it’s all about personality and usability. With designers pushing the boundaries of form and function, designers and businesses could benefit from studying the top web design trends of 2025.
1. Color Trends
More than being functional, the right color palette is essential to communicate a cohesive brand story. In 2025, more designers are exploring different design principles, making color choices just as diverse.
With the dark, comforting Mocha Mousse named Pantone’s color of the year, many designers are adopting more soothing, cohesive color palettes using rich, warm tones that evoke comfort and familiarity. On the other hand, with the rise of experimental approaches like anti-design, some designers are embracing bright, bold contrasts and seemingly “ugly” design choices to make a statement.
2. Expressive Typography
In 2025, more designers are embracing text and typography as a graphic element. The right typeface can increase reading speed by 35%. More than being the functional conduit for presenting text, the right font and typeface significantly contribute to a website’s design identity.
Bold, expressive typefaces are growing more popular as designers use text as visual centerpieces. Designers are also exploring maximalist fonts and unique pairings between serif and sans-serif text to tell a story and grab attention.
3. Micro-Interactions
Micro-interactions refer to small yet impactful effects when a user interacts with a web page element. Think of links that change colors or play a small animation when you hover over them. These small interactions, color changes, and movements make the browsing experience more intentional and memorable.
4. Micro-Animations
Animation can be a great visual centerpiece, but it can also be highly effective in the background. Web design trends in 2025 include using animation to breathe life into their pages and increase visual interest.
Micro-animations refer to small movements made to enhance static images or elements. For example, a landscape illustration could have its grass moving in the wind or clouds floating slowly across the sky.
5. Scroll-Triggered Animations
Designers can use ordinary actions like scrolling to produce unique effects. Instead of the ordinary up and down movement when you scroll, designers can program different animations — colors can change, images can fade in or out, or different elements can move into place. These movements create a unique experience that encourages visitors to explore the website further.
6. Experimental Navigation
Navigation is another area where designers can innovate and experiment. While tabs and sidebars are effective and user-friendly, experimenting with how you present your website’s structure can make the browsing experience more enjoyable.
Designers could incorporate 3D transitions, animations, and other scrolling elements if it suits the website’s content.
7. Anti-Design
Anti-design is an art movement that rejects traditional design principles. It forgoes harmony and conformity to embrace chaos and expression — even when it looks “ugly.” It prioritizes cultural relevance and social impact over profitability. When done right, anti-design websites are visually impactful and memorable. They best suit individual projects like portfolios or grassroots community organizations.
Pop culture examples include the iconic Brat rollout by Charli XCX, where the album art was a simple square of garish green with blurry black text. Independent and amateur web designers are also bringing back the design sensibilities of the old web through platforms like Neocities.
8. Brutalist Design
Brutalism is another art movement that is getting a revival in 2025. In web design, it uses big, bold fonts, simple layouts, imposing images, and unpolished graphic elements. Think how blocky, stone brutalist buildings make you feel, but translate it into a web page. It’s direct and straightforward, mainly using monochromatic palettes and minimal ornamentation to convey its message.
9. Bento Grids
Grids are a common way to organize web content. Bento grids are a variant of this strategy, using different-sized but proportional blocks to showcase and manage content. It looks pretty similar to its namesake, the Japanese bento box — each lunchbox compartment becomes a space for a different image or piece of information you want to publish.
10. Asymmetric Grids
Asymmetry is another unique approach to spice up the basic grid. This design approach can work for e-commerce product pages, blogs, catalogs, and other web pages designed to organize and display different items.
Instead of placing everything in an even grid, consider changing the shape and dimensions of each row. This technique is excellent for breaking up visual monotony and introducing flow within the page.
11. Negative Space
Empty spaces are just as necessary to maintain cohesion and visual appeal. Skillfully balancing content with ample negative space can help designers emphasize key elements within the page. Empty spaces and minimalist design principles give images, text, and buttons room to breathe. A clean, simple layout that utilizes hierarchies and well-placed graphics can guide viewers’ eyes smoothly through the page and create an intuitive, user-friendly experience.
12. Organic Shapes
Organic shapes have been a staple in mainstream web design, and have only grown in popularity in the past couple of years. The large organic blobs are probably this design trend’s most popular iteration. Grids and straight lines are great for organizing content, but they aren’t the only option. Fluid, asymmetrical shapes are visually exciting and can guide the user’s eye smoothly throughout the page, creating a pleasant browsing experience.
13. Custom Illustrations
Unique art and graphics can make a website more impactful and appealing. Custom illustrations help create a strong, cohesive, and distinctive visual identity that perfectly captures the brand’s message. Incorporating animation or interactive features makes these illustrations come even more alive.
14. Dark and Light Modes
Dark and light modes are more than switching between a black and white background. These modes each require color theory, balance and good design. However, once you pull it off, a good dark mode or light mode can make browsing more comfortable for site visitors.
15. Focus on UX/UI Design
Good web design goes beyond aesthetics. More modern designers also prioritize user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design in their work. These principles make websites easier to use and create a more pleasant flow for visitors, impacting engagement and session duration.
16. Conversational Chatbots
More companies are embracing the power of chatbots to improve customer service and support. These features make websites more interactive and help brands provide immediate support 24/7, at least for simpler queries. In 2024, a survey found that 82% of consumers would use a chatbot instead of waiting for an agent to take their call.
17. Accessibility
The internet is for everyone. In 2025, designers are prioritizing the creation of websites that everyone, including people with disabilities, can use. Accessibility in web design covers features and elements like keyboard navigation, appropriate contrast and alt text for images. As laws like the European Accessibility Act, which has taken effect in June 2025, get passed all around the world, more sites will follow this trend toward a more accessible internet.
Stay Ahead in 2025 and Beyond
Web design trends in 2025 are shifting toward more interesting, personalized design sensibilities while improving accessibility and functionality. Keeping up with these trends is wise for designers and business owners — adopting a few can future-proof your website and improve usability for your visitors.
About The Author
Eleanor Hecks is the Editor-in-Chief of Designerly Magazine, an online publication dedicated to providing in-depth content from the design and marketing industries. When she's not designing or writing code, you can find her exploring the outdoors with her husband and dog in their RV, burning calories at a local Zumba class, or curled up with a good book with her cats Gem and Cali.
You can find more of Eleanor's work at www.eleanorhecks.com.