Are you wondering what to expect in the web design/development space in the new year? We asked our Fyresite team to share what trends they expect (or hope) to see rise to the top or sink to the bottom in 2025.

IN – Modern Web Brutalism

Modern web brutalism may sound intimidating, but it refers to a raw, minimalist design. Rather than the sterile white and black that many associate with minimalism, brutalism doesn’t shy away from bright colors or clutter. Rather, these web designs focus on functionality over looks.

The term comes from the French word ‘brut’, which means raw. This web design trend started as an architecture trend in Europe in the 1950s, following the second world war.

Modern web brutalism looks like contrasting colors, raw text, solid colors, sharp edges and geometric shapes, untreated photos, and open navigation.

Our web designers see 2025 as the year that more and more people embrace the function and creativity of modern web brutalism design.

Stripe.dev is a perfect example of modern web brutalism

OUT – Stock Photos on Websites

Stock photos have been used to flesh out websites for what feels like forever. Photos make a website more human and trustworthy than a site without them. So why does our team think that stock photos are going to fall out of favor in 2025? AI.

Our team doesn’t think photos themselves are going away on websites. Rather, we expect that stock photos will be replaced by generative AI photos. In our experience, clients find that looking for a specific stock image can be tiresome and difficult, not always finding the right photo with the job. Using generative AI gives greater creative control and allows clients to get the perfect picture.

Fyresite’s team expects a slow but steady transition from stock photos to AI-generated images throughout 2025.

IN – Increased AI Integration

Let’s face it – AI isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, Fyresite’s team agrees across the board that AI integration is only going to heat up in 2025.

As we mentioned above, we foresee that AI-generated images are going to take over stock images online. Other examples our team is expecting are chat bots to become fully AI, with a more personalized experience for each customer, content creation, and to complete work tasks.

Our team also issued this warning though – be sure to double check written content before putting it up anywhere. There are words/phrases that make it very obvious that AI has been used without any edits, which may make site users wary. These include

  • Important to consider
  • Additionally
  • Dynamic
  • In conclusion
  • Moreover

While this is not an exhaustive list, nor does it mean that only AI uses these words and phrases, it’s something to watch out for.

ProPlaintiff.ai is a legal AI multitool

OUT – Full Minimalism

While we don’t think minimalism as a whole is going anywhere soon (hello modern web brutalism!), we do think that full minimalism is on the way out.

By full minimalism, we mean websites that have stripped down everything not essential – including color or images. While some brands have made their name with full minimalism, many brands that try to emulate these designs do so at the sacrifice of their own brand identity.

IN – Accessibility Focused Design

There’s doing the bare minimum to make sure that you have a website that meets ADA compliance, and then there’s accessibility focused design. Our team sees the latter becoming more prevalent throughout 2025. And it’s important – 95.9% of home pages alone on the web have WCAG 2 compliance errors.

What does an accessibility focused design look like? These designs have contrasting text and backgrounds, alternative text for all images, utilizing an active voice, clear call to actions, and even the use of white space on a page. All of these make your website more accessible to more of the population.

The WCAG is the golden standard of ADA compliant design

OUT – Inorganic Design

Remember when cold and futuristic designs were all the rage? We do, and we know it’s going to be left behind in 2025. 2025 design is all about pulling from nature and organic designs. Cold, clinical designs are leaving the building as users look for the calming nature of organic designs.

IN – Blockchain-Based Account Creation

Let’s face it – we use the internet for everything. And because of that, we have dozens or hundreds of accounts, which all need to be kept secure. And as cryptocurrency continues to grow steadily, blockchain technology is becoming more and more important than ever.

A blockchain is a digital ledger that stores records of transactions through a series of computers. The most important aspect is that this ledger is decentralized, making the connection transparent, immutable, and, most importantly, resistant to tampering.

A blockchain account is a necessity for anyone interested in cryptocurrency

OUT – Corporate Meme Culture Appropriation in Marketing

It’s time for a sad truth – not every meme relates to your business. It feels like every time that you don’t jump on the latest trend is a missed marketing opportunity, but it’s not. Brands started to realize this in the second half of 2024, but we think 2025 will be the year brands fully embrace that jumping on every trend isn’t the best strategy for their business.

IN – Voice User Interface

“Hey Siri” or “Hey Alexa” or “Hey Google”. You’ve probably heard and said at least one of these before asking a question. As time has gone on, people have gotten more and more used to asking questions aloud versus typing the question out.

Our team believes that designing for voice user interfaces is going to be blowing up this year. This means designing hands and eye free user interfaces – meaning designs that don’t need the screen to be understandable. An additional win? This kind of designing falls under accessibility focused design – making the site optimal for users who need audio accessibility.

OUT – Fancy Stroll Animations

Nothing ends a trend quicker than when it becomes uber popular, as shown by fancy stroll animations, often referred to as parallax animations. What used to be all the rage is quickly becoming a designing faux pax.

This is a trend that we’ve seen from clients rather than their users. Every site and app wants to stand out from the pack, and it has led to clients looking to eschew popular trends in order to differentiate themselves.

Want to Make 2025 Your Year?

Partner with Fyresite to make 2025 your best year yet. We offer design, development, and continuous improvement services to keep your brand fresh and future proof. Use our contact form today to get started.