Today I was watching a video about web design trends in 2025.
When watching these sorts of things it’s important to bear in mind that web design is not a “one size fits all” situation. Chris from Showit does actually highlight this at points
you’ve gotta think – does this trend fit in with my brand?
That’s the key question to ask yourself when considering anything that affects how users interact with your website.
Bigger and bolder in 2025
A lot of the trends featured in the video are all about going bolder and getting more in your face, with features like:
- Bigger text
- Brighter colours
- Rebelling against usability
Most websites want to stand out, especially if you’re going to build a brand website. However, this isn’t going to work for all use cases. In particular “utilitarian websites”.
As an example, if you go to a showcase website you more than likely have chosen to visit that website to see something visual and striking. Some of those trends mentioned in the video are going to work for you because you want to grab attention in a way that’s not necessarily loud, but different.
If you go to a website that’s providing a service like buying a ticket, or showing critical information, then usability is always should rule the roost.
Micro interactions (and increased subtlety in animation)
As someone that works primarily on utilitarian websites, it should come as no surprise then that one of my favourite trends in the video is “Micro interactions”.
There is a trend toward the use of more subtle animation on web pages and using them solely for micro interactions.
Micro interactions can be used to highlight interactivity on the website, steer users through their journey and help navigate your site quicker.
Here are some examples of micro interactions:
https://userpilot.com/blog/micro-interaction-examples/
So, by decreasing bold animations as you move around the page and have components fly in and out, you stop drowning out micro interactions. The stuff that’s going to tell users “this is interactive”, or give people useful feedback to their actions.
It’s usability focussed and I love to see it!
Accessibility, accessibility, accessibility
Just build your site with accessibility considerations, whatever you’re building. Even if it’s a fancy brochure website.
This is my first post on here so, although I’ve gone on about accessibility in my daily life, I’ve still a lot to say about accessibility on here, but this isn’t the post.
When it comes to animations though, respect people’s “prefers reduced motion” preference. Visitor’s who have a vestibular (inner-ear) disorder can feel physically sick when encountering jarring animations (even if you think your animation isn’t jarring).
https://web.dev/articles/prefers-reduced-motion
You can easily target this preference with JS and CSS so there’s no excuse for not building this into your work.