Top 3 UX Design Trends in 2025, and the Pros & Cons of each

When an organization considers a website refresh or redesign, something that we often recommend as designers, brand consultants, marketers, and researchers is to take a look at what other similar sites or brands are doing.

It can be an informal exercise of grabbing screenshots and sorting them by features that the team aspires to include on the new site, or it can turn into an in-depth competitive analysis of nav structures, usability, features, and visuals including color scheme (because yes, even color has a psychological impact on your end user).

One of my favorite things to do, in fact, are competitive analyses. But while I love them to pieces, they aren't always necessary. In fact, some work toward the detriment of a project if the product/web owner is afraid to differentiate from the competitors. Tell you what, I will work on a future post about when and when not to invest in a competitive analysis, and report back here with a link (stay tuned!).

For now, I thought I'd share a few trends I am seeing on popular websites and think will continue into 2025 and a year or two beyond. Just note, not all trends should be followed. Remember mall bangs?

Bye-bye "visible" subtext. Tone and context are now entirely reliant upon the visual (image/video). Also, clever, playful and sometimes (unfortunately) obscure copy is replaced by utilitarian, plain as day copy. But what you save on a copywriter will likely be spent instead on visual designers, photographers, videographers, etc.

Pros:

• Less noise, quicker absorption of content (for hurried, overwhelmed, distracted or impatient users, which is most)

• You and your team are going to agonize a lot less over copy/copy edits

• Mobile-friendly to the max

Cons:

• You might lose some of the tone/personality that makes your brand unique

• Your images/video are going to have to tell a story worth at least some words... words that hit home with the audience/viewer... so you won't be able to rely on stock photos that "nearly entirely" cut it

• You will still need copy written for ARIA tags and screen readers

Sample brands taking a "minimal copy" approach:

• Apple

• Anthropologie

• Nike

• Tesla

• Walmart (compare it to Target's home page)

This immersive design trend providers end-users with immediate confirmation of what the brand or site has to offer and translates to mobile perfectly. I venture to guess that it also saves money on development, but if the imagery pairings are not thoughtfully laid out by an experienced visual designer, the experience could fall flat.

Pros:

• Scrollable, quick to consume content

• Can feel more immersive and branded

• Consistent experience across devices

Cons:

• Priority is dictated by order (top to bottom), so anything much below the 2nd or 3rd "pancake" will likely not be consumed by end-users (too full?)

• If content is too dissimilar to the pancake immediately above or below it, the user could feel jostled or have an unclear idea about your brand/service

• If content is too similar, it may start to feel repetitive or worse, boring

  
  

Sample brands serving up pancakes:

• 7-up

• Apple

• Tesla

  
  

I feel slightly vindicated with this one.

When designing my own personal websites, I tend to go font crazy. When I solicit feedback from colleagues, they usually suggest zeroing in on "no more than 3 fonts." Apparently, there are a few UX designers after my own heart running wild in the halls of a few big brands below, because it shows.

Pros:

• Freedom for your designers to do what they do, design and create

• The experience can feel more natural to the end-user—there are just certain fonts that complement the visuals better and make more of an emotive impact

Cons:

• The experience could start to feel a bit disjointed or disconnected from itself, but a good user experience designer can mitigate this risk

• You might end up having a lot of "discussions" with your brand team about your design ideas, which can be a bigger challenge when brand teams are separate from web or app design teams, as they often are in larger organizations

Sample brands having a good time with fonts:

• 7-up

• Anthropologie

• Coca-Cola

• Lonely Planet

• Nike

• Tesla, but only with the Cyber Truck

• Walmart 

Thanks for reading!

This blog was written by a human.