We design websites and iOS apps for startups at OSAM, so we care less about what’s fashionable on Dribbble and more about what actually changes users’ expectations. Here are the shifts we think are worth paying attention to, from AI-shaped interfaces to personalization, and how to use them without turning your product into a trend museum.
1. Interfaces shaped by AI
The biggest shift isn’t AI tools for designers. It’s AI inside the products we design. Users now expect to type or say what they want and have the product figure out the rest.
- Conversational entry points. A search bar that understands "cheap flights to somewhere warm in March" instead of forcing five filters.
- Generated content and summaries. Long reviews condensed into key points, dashboards that explain themselves, inboxes that sort what matters.
- Interfaces that adapt. Screens that rearrange based on the task at hand, not one fixed layout for everyone.
The design challenge is new: how do you show what the AI is doing, let people correct it and keep them in control? A chat box bolted onto an app isn’t an AI experience. The best AI features feel like part of the product, show their work and make it easy to undo.
And a rule that matters more than any visual trend: AI should remove steps, not add them. If users need a tutorial to talk to your assistant, it’s not helping.
2. Hyper-personalization (with a line you shouldn’t cross)
Personalization used to mean "Hi, Anna" at the top of an email. Now products can adapt almost everything: what you see first, which features surface, how content is phrased, even the order of an onboarding flow.
Done well, it feels like the product just gets you:
- A home screen that puts the action you do every day one tap away.
- Onboarding that skips what you already know.
- Recommendations based on what you actually used, not what the company wants to sell.
- Settings that remember your preferences across devices.
Done badly, it feels like being watched. When a product knows something users didn’t realize they shared, trust drops instantly.
The rules we’d follow:
- Be transparent. Show why something is recommended ("because you saved…").
- Give control. Let people reset, adjust or turn personalization off.
- Keep a stable core. Navigation and key actions should stay where people expect them. Personalize content, not the map.
- Collect only what you use. Every piece of data should earn its place with a clear benefit to the user.
3. Platforms set the tone: Liquid Glass and the native feel
Sometimes the biggest trend comes straight from the platform. In 2025, with iOS 26, Apple replaced the flat look it had used since iOS 7 with Liquid Glass: a translucent, layered material inspired by visionOS, with reflections and highlights that react to movement. It now runs across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Watch and Apple TV, and it reshaped controls, tab bars and navigation.
For anyone designing iOS apps, this isn’t optional decoration. Users’ phones now look and feel a certain way, and an app that ignores it feels instantly dated.
What this means in practice:
- Design with native components first. Standard controls adopt the new look automatically. Custom ones need extra care to fit in.
- Mind readability. Transparency is beautiful until text sits on a busy background. Contrast still wins.
- Let content lead. The new language pushes controls back so content takes center stage. Design layouts that work with that, not against it.
- Make your brand show up elsewhere. When the system chrome looks the same for everyone, personality lives in your content, illustration, motion and copy.
The broader lesson goes beyond Apple: follow the platform where users expect it, and stand out where it matters.
4. Craft is the new differentiator
Here’s the paradox of AI: when anyone can generate a decent-looking app in an afternoon, decent-looking stops being enough. The internet is filling up with interfaces that are clean, competent and completely forgettable.
So the trend pulling hardest in the other direction is visible craft:
- Personality over templates. Distinctive type, an unexpected color, illustrations and copy that sound like a specific brand instead of every brand.
- Thoughtful motion. Micro-interactions that give feedback, transitions that explain where you are, small moments of delight. Not animation for its own sake, but motion that makes the product feel alive and responsive.
- Details that show someone cared. Good empty states, helpful error messages, a loading screen that doesn’t feel like a punishment.
We saw this firsthand on a cleaner app that Apple kept rejecting as design spam: it looked like thousands of other cleaners. A new visual direction and its own personality fixed what a color swap never could. In a world of AI-made sameness, looking like yourself is a feature.
5. Accessibility and trust become non-negotiable
These two aren’t flashy, which is exactly why they get skipped. They shouldn’t.
- Accessibility. Readable contrast, scalable text, screen reader labels, touch targets big enough for real thumbs. It’s not a niche feature: it makes products better for everyone, from someone with low vision to someone squinting at their phone in the sun. It’s also increasingly a legal matter. In the EU, the European Accessibility Act has applied to many digital products and services since June 2025, so for products sold there, accessibility is becoming a requirement rather than a nice-to-have.
- Trust. With AI features, personalization and subscriptions everywhere, users are more suspicious than ever. Design earns trust through clear pricing, honest consent screens, easy cancellation and no dark patterns. A paywall that tricks people into a yearly plan might win a conversion today and a one-star review tomorrow.
The best part: both are cheap to get right from the start and expensive to fix later.
How to follow trends without becoming one
Before adopting any trend, ask three questions:
- Does it help users do something faster, easier or with more confidence? If not, it’s decoration.
- Does it fit this product and this audience? A playful animation that delights a game’s players can annoy a banking app’s users.
- Will it still make sense in two years? Platform shifts and user habits last. Visual fashions don’t.
Trends are a toolbox, not a checklist. The products people love don’t look trendy. They look like themselves and feel effortless to use.