Was cleaning out my design archive last weekend and found a bunch of 2023 trend prediction articles i had bookmarked. decided to grade them lol
some were hilariously wrong. one article predicted “the death of minimalism” in 2023. we’re in 2026 and minimalism is doing just fine thanks. another said “every brand will have a metaverse presence by 2024.” yeah about that.
but some were actually prescient:
- AI integration in design workflows. this was predicted before midjourney really blew up and here we are
- inclusive and accessible design becoming standard not optional. definitely happened, WCAG compliance went from “nice to have” to “required in the brief”
- motion design in UI. microinteractions went from bonus to expected. i spend way more time on transitions now than i did in 2023
the biggest one nobody predicted: the authenticity backlash. in 2023 everbody wanted things polished and perfect. by 2025 there was this massive shift toward imperfect, handmade, obviously-human aesthetics. the “anti-AI” look became its own trend
what graphic design trends from 2023 do you think actually survived into your daily work?
the authenticity backlash point is so on the money. in typography specifically i’ve seen a massive swing toward imperfect, hand-lettered type. stuff that looks like it was sketched in a notebook. clients used to want everything geometric and precise, now they want “warmth” and “character” which basically means intentionally wobbly lol
As a web designer the biggest change from 2023 predictions that actually landed: performance as design. pagespeed became a first-class design constraint not just a dev concern. i now think about file size and loading order in the design phase which i definitely wasnt doing in 2023
Honestly the accessibility prediction was the one that affected my work the most. my company hired a dedicated accessibility consultant last year and now every design review includes a WCAG checklist. it felt like extra work at first but our products are genuiely better for it
one prediction nobody made in 2023: the rise of design systems as a product. selling or licensing your design system to other companies became a legitimate business model. stripe, shopify, atlassian - they all basically productized their internal design systems. thats wild if you think about where we were 3 years ago