Top Web Design Trends for 2025: What's In and What's Out

A comprehensive look at the web design trends defining 2025 — what is gaining ground, and what is on the way out.

1. Anti-Design

Anti-design is a web design trend that breaks all conventional rules. It’s a style that doesn’t adhere to any specific guidelines, allowing designers to create unique and standout designs. This trend works exceptionally well for posters and can be creatively applied to websites by adding motion to static images or using oversized images that are impossible to ignore. With the advent of no-code tools, creating such complex designs has become more accessible.

2. Experimental Navigation

Traditional navigation bars are becoming a thing of the past. In 2025, designers are experimenting with new ways to create navigation that is outside the box — zoom-in and zoom-out effects that make an entire site feel like a single canvas, or fold-out navigation that keeps users on the same page while moving through sections.

3. Scrolling Design

Scrolling design is becoming increasingly popular, with designers adding parallax effects and animations to scroll events. This trend involves using animated text, images, and 3D elements to create a dynamic user experience — 3D letters that fly into place as you scroll being a common treatment.

4. Macro Animation

Macro animations are large-scale animations that respond to user interactions like scrolling and mouse movements. These animations make the entire website feel alive and interactive. While some designers prefer a more subtle approach, others go all out with 3D elements and scroll-jacking to create a fully immersive experience.

5. Chatbot Design

With the rise of AI, chatbots are becoming a common feature on websites. In 2025, more websites are incorporating AI-driven chatbots offering voice, text, and chat functionality. These chatbots can be integrated into the website’s design, offering users a more interactive and personalised experience.

6. Smart Video

Smart videos are replacing traditional images in feature sections. These short, ten-second videos provide a quick overview of a feature or product. They can be triggered by scrolling or embedded in the page to keep users engaged.

7. Cursor Animation

Cursor animations are becoming more sophisticated, with designers using them to animate different parts of a website. This trend involves adding interactive elements that respond to the cursor’s movement — draggable windows and panels being a popular example.

8. Custom Illustrations

Custom illustrations are a timeless trend that continues to be popular in 2025. Hand-drawn illustrations add a personal touch to websites, making them feel more welcoming and unique, and they remain one of the few elements that cannot be copied from a template.

9. Full-Screen Headers

Full-screen headers are becoming more common, with designers using them to create a strong first impression. These headers often feature sliders or videos that keep users engaged while they navigate through the site, allowing exploration without leaving the main page.

10. Bento Grid

The Bento grid continues to be popular in 2025. This grid layout displays information in a visually appealing way, often mixing images, text and animation within a single structured frame.

11. Expressive Typography

Expressive typography involves using unique fonts and styles to make a website stand out. This includes full caps, outlines, and animated text, often carrying the personality of the brand more than the imagery does.

12. Colour Trends

Colour trends are an essential part of web design, with designers using colour to create a specific mood. In 2025, more websites are using bright, vibrant colours mixed with neutral tones to highlight the elements that matter.

13. Brutalism

Brutalism is becoming more popular with younger designers. The style is bold and unconventional, often featuring oversized text and buttons. It does not appeal to everyone, which is largely the point.

14. Micro Interactions

Micro interactions are small animations that enhance the user experience. These appear in buttons, hover effects and transitions, making a site feel responsive rather than static.

15. Negative Space

Negative space involves using white space to create a clean, uncluttered look. It helps users focus on the main content and makes a site easier to navigate.

16. Grid Design

Grid design uses CSS grids to create a structured layout. It is becoming more popular as designers look for ways to display information in a clean and organised way.

17. 3D Websites

3D elements are becoming more common in web design, used to create immersive experiences. They appear in headers, feature sections and occasionally across an entire site, coming to life as the visitor scrolls.

18. Blending Image and Graphics

Blending images and graphics combines different elements into a single composition — text overlays, silhouettes and layered treatments that would not work as either photography or illustration alone.

19. Dark Mode and Light Mode

Dark and light mode are becoming standard, with designers creating designs that work in both. This means using colour harmony and contrast deliberately so the transition between modes is seamless rather than an afterthought.

20. Text-Only Websites

Text-only websites focus on simplicity and clarity, using text as the main design element so users concentrate on the content rather than browsing images.

Conclusion

Most of these trends share one thing: they reward sites built deliberately rather than assembled from a template. Motion, typography and structure are doing more of the work than decoration.

If your site needs to reflect where design is heading, see how we build websites or tell us what you have in mind.