5 Trends in UI Design for 2024: From Pixels to Perfection

From the first version of Adobe Photoshop to Sketch and now Figma, the UI design world is continuously evolving! 

The UI design of a mobile app or a website is the first thing we notice – how a product looks. Believe it or not, Adobe even stated that 38% of users end up losing interest if the design lacks engagement or simply looks bad. So, yes, that’s how important it is to focus on the UI design of a product. 

The year 2023 has been incredible for user interface design trends – from motion graphics to scrollytelling and even the introduction of AR and VR technologies. So, what are the 2024 UI design trends will shape the future of the entire UI/UX design world?

Minimalism has been a trend in the UI/UX design industry for quite some time. In 2024, more and more companies will opt for a modern minimalist approach due to their clean and professional aesthetic. And it makes sense! The lack of unnecessary UI elements (such as busy illustrations or animations) draws the user's attention to your message rather than how it looks.

For this reason, with the latest minimalist design iteration, we should focus on bold text, subtle details, and clean layouts that can still make things interesting. The clarity of the product design provides a more seamless user experience, and it’s also fast-loading and functional – a bonus for SEO purposes. 

One of the most essential rules in UI/UX design is adaptability to any screen. And as of 2024, more and more UI designers also implement this rule to system themes – dark and light. In other words, there is a growing trend in websites and mobile apps that automatically adjust their theme according to their users’ system – or just allow them to choose. 

This feature adds another layer of personalization and visual comfort, allowing users to tailor their interface to reflect their preferences. Whether they prefer the sleek dark mode or the clarity of the light mode, their choice is in their hands. These modes can be automatic and dynamic, but users can also manually switch between them through a toggle.

From the category of design tools, we have the bento layout. The bento layout is one of the most anticipated apps and website design trends for 2024. In simple terms, bento grids represent a grid of boxes. This trend allows UI/UX designers to create a wireframe that illustrates more features simultaneously — but in a more organized, modern, and fun way. Even more so, this type of layout is responsive and flexible, helping designers build products that look perfect on all screens.

Bolt, Uinkits Design System, Diagram, and even the promotional video for Apple Mac – they all embraced the bento grids trend. So, it’s safe to say that this is the UI design trend for 2024. 

If you’re not a fan of the minimalist design, then you might love the neubrutalism design trend. This style ignores traditional UI design conventions and embraces bold contrasts of colors, blocky card components, huge and capitalized typography, and an overall unconventional look. 

The best part of neubrutalism is that it combines UI elements and ideas from the past with contemporary methods. This concept is created to evoke nostalgia for the vintage and lively vibes of the 80s while also being big, bold, and capitalized. For more inspiration, check out Figma and Gumroad’s websites – and probably 90% of Dribbble designs.

In 2024, we will see more and more UI designs incorporating interactive and 3D objects. The 3D objects feature is not a new trend. However, this year, we will go beyond the static implementations somewhere in our design, going for a dynamic and engaging experience. This represents an add-on to the 2023 UI trends – scrollytelling, as it aims to captivate user’s attention through immersive and interactive narratives. 

One of the focuses of interactive 3D objects will be reinventing the traditional cursor. Yes, the cursor is not something that we – both as users and as UI/UX designers, pay that much attention to. But imagine a cursor that transforms into a playful animation when hovering, or maybe a cursor that displays contextual information or tooltips when users interact with different UI elements. These interactions might make the difference between a good UI design and a great UI design.