Web design trends aren’t just about looking good to the user, it’s about creating immersive experiences, that shape your brands personality and stop endless scrolling, instigating further engagement.
Some of the key strategies to modern web design in 2025 include:
- A move from minimal to maximalist expression – though there are those that avoid conforming successfully
- The shift in user expectation from WebGL and 3D elements to AI capabilities, increasingly we are seeing that there is an ‘tech’ expectation placed on websites
- UX best practices, mobile-first design, dark mode integration, legibility and accessibility are a high user priority
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Stripe: Minimalist led
Translating a concept that could be quite complicated to a layperson, Stripe’s website is a great example of a white space led design to simply convey your services to the market without overwhelming visitors.
Key design features:
- Progressive disclosure: As the user scrolls information fades in and out, letting information be processed at the user’s speed, preventing overloading them
- Subtle animations: These micro-interactions on buttons and cards provide satisfying feedback
- Grid-based layout: Maintaining a visual hierarchy whilst still feeling open in its design
How to apply this to your own site:
Especially helpful if your product is technically complex, breaking down your services into easily digestible blocks, that can be navigated at the user’s own pace is a good place to start. Use animation sparingly to help guide the user journey, rather than to decorate the site.
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Airbnb: Visual Storytelling
Whether you are a fan of their new 3D ‘Lava’ iconography or not… Airbnb takes property listings and elevates them into aspirational experiences. Full bleed photography and seamless search functionality prioritise imagery while maintaining usability.
Key design features:
- Hero images: Creating immediate emotional connection, letting the user see themselves in the space
- Smart filtering: Ensuring the user can craft their search results using metrics that are highly important to them; private bathroom, whole place, parking space etc.
- Mobile-first design: Knowing where most users access your service and leading with this, ensuring consistency across devices
How to apply this to your own site:
Lead with your strongest visual assets, first impressions are important! If your product has a visual component, ensure the images are studio quality, don’t leave photography as an afterthought.
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Linear: Dark Mode
Step into the future, it’s in in dark mode. Whilst white text on a dark site background is not everybody’s cup of tea, fluid animations and carefully choreographed graphics and effects reflect the polish of their software offerings.
Key design features:
- Cohesion: Keeping the same strong design language across marketing and products
- Motion design: The use of motion design when you are without a physical product to display helps to demonstrate capabilities
- Theming: Strategic use of dark themes helps reduce visual fatigue, and appears cutting edge when compared to competitors
How to apply this to yopur own site:
Your website should feel like a preview of your product, so if you build software or a virtual product, consider how you can demonstrate your product offerings quality through the execution of your site.
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Apple: Guided, scroll driven narratives
A masterclass in storytelling through a scroll of a mouse, as you navigate the site, products rotate, features animate into view and specifications reveal themselves at precisely the right moment.
Key design features:
- Scroll: Once a product is selected animations control pacing and user focus
- Cinematic: Product photography with dramatic lighting sets a cinematic tone
- Comparison: Strategic comparison sections that highlight product offerings and improvements across models
How to apply this to your own site:
Your landing page is a story, with a beginning, middle and end. Control the narrative through scroll positioning and animation, trickling the information to the user rather than releasing all information at once.
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Notion: Community driven design
Notion illustrates that though your product may be AI-powered, you can still create a sense of community through real user templates and use cases. Creating value through versatile layouts, rather than just listing features.
Key design features:
- Template galleries: Showing product capabilities to the user, not just telling them directly
- Flexibility: Component based layouts that easily adapt to different content types
- Not just testimonials: Social proof integrated naturally throughout the design, think of this as the design equivalent of picking a busy restaurant over a quiet one
How to apply this to your own site:
Featuring your current users and their successes, real examples are more convincing than marketing copy to the modern user, especially for tools with multiple use cases.
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Awwwards: Don’t forget the power of typography
Perhaps quite expectedly, Awwwards is a showcase for web design excellence, continuously pushing the boundaries. Bold typography, unexpected layouts and cutting-edge CSS techniques create a distinctive identity.
Key design features:
- Typography: As the primary design element, variable and kinetic type faces drawing the user in
- Grid: Breaking the traditional grid structures in an unexpected way, that feels fresh and different even if it relies on the same standard principles
- Experiment: Not being afraid to try techniques that push traditional standards yet still maintain usability
How to apply this to your own site:
If your product or brand is creative or innovative, good typography can differentiate you from competitors. Explore variable fonts, large scale type, and unconventional layouts, but still prioritise legibility and readability.
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Shopify: Conversion focused design
Every element on Shopify’s site is built around conversion, from trust badges to strategically placed CTAs, to benefit advertising headlines, everything is geared towards visitor signup.
Key design features:
- Clarity: Clear value propositions above the fold
- Call-to-actions: Multiple CTAs throughout each page, with an emphasis on the contextual appropriateness
- Positioning: Case studies and social proof positioned at decision points
How to apply this to your own site:
Placing CTAs where users naturally want to act, not just at the top and bottom of pages, this can be achieved through an audit of your users’ journey. Match your messaging to the awareness level at each stage.
Bringing it all together
These seven websites represent different philosophies, but they share common design threads: intentionality, user journey, and attention to design. A successful redesign doesn’t require implementing everything at once, identify your goals and approach design with that in mind.
Before starting your redesign:
- What action do you want you users to take?
- How can your website design reflect your products quality?
- Where can you simplify before adding more elements?
Don’t just focus on the design looking beautiful, guide users confidently towards their goals, making complex ideas simple to digest, leaving a lasting impression beyond the screen.
