Design
Aug 21, 2025
2025 Web Design Trends: 7 Strategic UX Trends
The 2025 web design trends enhance user experience and differentiate brands through interactive elements, retro designs, a human-centered approach, vibrant colors, dark mode, custom illustrations, and micro animations.
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This document aims to alleviate the challenges faced by Korean Framer users due to a lack of Korean resources by translating the official blog's content and adding practical information useful for professionals. We hope this proves to be a small help to those using Framer.
Web design trends constantly change. Some trends quickly fade away. For instance, almost no designers now utilize 1990s styles like Flash intro pages, visitor counters, or autoplay music. However, it's difficult to determine when a mainstream trend becomes outdated.
To inspire your upcoming projects and keep up with changing currents, Framer has compiled web design trends to watch in 2025. From micro animations to hand-drawn illustrations, various design strategies are introduced to differentiate brands and enhance user experiences.
1. Engaging Users with Interactive Elements
The number of static websites is decreasing, while the importance of interactive web experiences is growing. The digital agency Family Style operates a playful homepage where users can click or drag objects floating in the air. Interactive styles like these are particularly noteworthy for brands in the creative industry or targeting younger audiences.
These designs offer more than just visual enjoyment; they have practical benefits too. Hover effects, animations triggered on scroll, and interactive objects can lengthen user engagement and improve conversion rates. Additionally, they can reinforce a positive brand impression.
Featured Template — FFProduct
To increase site interactivity, try using floating objects, hover effects, and animated cursor trails. Scroll effects are also a great way to add dynamism. FFProduct is a Framer template designed for product sales, offering finely tuned animations in each section.
2. Adding Personality and Emotion with Retro Elements
Bold typography, rough textures, and 80s color combinations are bringing retro elements back into the spotlight. For example, the fictional banking app Nolo presents a landing page filled with retro design elements and stylish fonts. In an era of minimalistic websites, retro style is a sure way to distinguish a brand.
Retro designs not only make a brand more memorable but also resonate emotionally with users. It’s not for everyone, but it's an attractive choice for brands seeking bold individuality.
Featured Template — Sizzey
To design a retro-themed site, start by selecting an era as your motif. Then, use bold retro fonts, strong and bold colors, rough textures, and faded hues to create a vintage feel. You can further enhance the lively atmosphere with ornamental elements like borders or patterns.
You can quickly get started by using Sizzey, a Framer template featuring a strong color palette and vintage-style fonts.
3. Maintaining Authenticity with Human-Centric Design
As perfect AI-generated content floods the market, designs characterized by 'imperfections' are gaining popularity. Designer Chris Lund's portfolio website, which resembles a scrapbook, features free-form photos, video clips, animations, and unpolished text.
Such designs are attractive because they are unrefined. Human-centric design makes brands feel more approachable.
Featured Template — Hanssen
To create human-made designs, focus on authenticity rather than perfection. The key is to let the brand's personality shine through. Hand-drawn illustrations, script fonts, and natural textures add a human touch to the digital experience.
If you want to quickly implement a hand-crafted feel, try the Hanssen Framer template, which features clean layouts, subtle animations, and personable fonts.
4. Maximizing Visual Presence with Vibrant Colors
While subdued color schemes suit corporate websites, they may not fit energetic and adventurous brands. The dumpling kit brand Thirsty Dumpling uses neon green and blue as main colors, boldly applying them throughout the background. Intense colors help increase noticeability and clearly convey brand identity, evoking emotional responses and visually expressing energy.
Featured Template — Jacob Turner
When creating designs with a vibrant color palette, remember that capturing attention is not the only goal. Use colors that evoke energy fitting for the brand. First, understand how the brand message influences design. Once you have a clear grasp of the energy you wish to convey, use design tools like high-contrast color combinations, highly saturated color schemes, and bright accent colors to effectively communicate the message.
For art directors and creative professionals aiming for quick launch, the Jacob Turner Framer template stands out for its bold and unique aesthetics, adding character and elegance to projects.
5. Enhancing Usability and Elegance with Dark Mode
Dark mode has evolved from simply being an accessibility feature to a sophisticated design trend. The design and prototyping tool Play dedicates its entire site to dark mode, popular among tech-oriented users like developers and designers. There are also various practical benefits, such as reducing eye strain, improving readability in low light, and increasing battery efficiency. Providing users with the option to switch between dark/light mode is a good strategy.
Featured Template — Atomic
When designing dark mode, prioritize readability by using high-contrast typography and color combinations that stand out against dark backgrounds. Neon points or highlights, ineffective in light mode, can be used in dark mode to experiment with unique and creative visual effects.
With Framer, easily switch between light and dark mode during the design process to customize the user experience for each mode. Avoid pure black, as it can cause eye strain and scrolling issues on some OLED screens. (Google's Material Design Guidelines recommend dark gray instead.)
To quickly utilize a brilliant dark mode setting, try the Framer template Atomic.
6. Creating Engaging Visual Storytelling with Illustrations
Illustrations custom-made for a brand are gaining prominence over generic stock photos. The UX content platform Punkt uses hand-drawn style illustrations throughout its homepage to narrate its story.
Illustrations are excellent for visually interpreting a brand message and maintaining a consistent visual tone throughout the site. They also have the practical advantage of faster loading speeds compared to photos.
Featured Template — AInbox
When creating illustrations, ensure they resonate with the brand's identity and message. Start with a few illustrations to add character to strategic areas like the hero section, key features, or icons. When ready for more in-depth work, consider visual storytelling to enhance existing content.
To quickly get started, use the Framer template AInbox, featuring images in the hero section and line icons throughout the website.
7. Conveying Subtle Emotions with Micro Animations
Micro animations can significantly impact user experience. The mentoring platform Aramis utilizes animations across various aspects, from icon movements to the overall motion design.
These elements are not just visual decoration. Adding micro animations and motion design elements to a site can increase user engagement, improve their journey, and build emotional connections with them.
Featured Template — TalentLink
When adding micro animations and motion design elements to a website, be cautious not to overdo it initially. It can distract users and increase loading times. Start by adding subtle animations like hover effects, button animations, and scroll effects in areas of frequent user interaction, then monitor user reactions.
To quickly initiate this, consider using the Framer template TalentLink, which includes hover effects, mouse-triggered animations, and interactive elements.
Staying Ahead with Trend-Reflective Websites
By incorporating the latest web design trends, you can move beyond static web pages to express your brand more dynamically. Interactive elements, custom illustrations, vibrant colors, and motion design can enhance user experiences and contribute to higher conversion rates.
Refer to the Framer templates and gallery to apply suitable trends to your projects. Start a new design today by creating a Framer account.
This post is a translated and adapted version of the Framer official blog's ‘2025 Professional Web Design Directions: 7 Strategic UX Trends’.
