What Is Neumorphism in UI Design? A Complete 2025 Guide
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Neumorphism had a moment. The soft UI trend reimagined skeuomorphism with a minimalist twist, blending depth and tactility with modern simplicity. But what rose quickly fell just as fast.
As a team of seasoned product and brand designers, we’ve seen design fads come and go. At Big Human, we design for impact. That means creating elevated, lasting interfaces; not fleeting UI/UX design fads. We’re a creative agency that partners with you to craft UI/UX that feels right for your brand and works hard for your users. Neumorphism may have fizzled out, but our designs don’t.
Let’s dig into why neumorphism captivated the design world—and why it didn’t stick.
What is Neumorphism? (The quick version)
Neumorphism is a minimalism UI style that mimics real-world objects while maintaining a clean, digital-first look. It blends elements of skeuomorphism and flat design, creating buttons, toggles, and fields that appear raised or pressed into the interface.
The visual formula? Subtle highlights and shadows + muted colors = soft, touchable depth. It looks sleek, but low contrast and limited accessibility made it difficult to use—and even harder to scale. That said, neumorphic style suffers from an overreliance on low-contrast color palettes, which impair visibility and don’t mesh with all brands. It’s tactile and the interactive elements are meant to be flashy, but at a cost.
What created the gap neumorphism tried to fill?
Before we delve further into the tangible details of what neumorphism is, there’s some important context to establish. Flat design has dominated the UI landscape for over a decade. Its no-frills, two-dimensional approach favors clarity, contrast, and ease of use. But with widespread adoption came creative fatigue. Enter neumorphism—a counter-movement.
“Popular UI design often gets kind of boring, because everyone starts doing the same thing,” John Kim, Big Human’s Director of Design, said. “When everyone is doing the same thing, there’s always going to be an opposite movement.”
Neumorphism broke the mold. But not every breakaway trend is built to last.
Its downfall? It sacrificed function for form. Neumorphism severely impeded accessibility. Low-contrast palettes made it difficult for users to understand hierarchy, interact with buttons, or read essential content. At Big Human, clarity is non-negotiable. One of our UI design principles is that it can be bold, playful, or unconventional—but never confusing. (Check out how we bridged the gap between accessibility and creativity using tech-forward storytelling.)
The Origins of Neumorphism
Dribbble user alexplyuto (Alexander Plyuto) is widely credited with sparking the design trend. The designer posted concept screenshots of various UI elements they created for a banking app in 2019. Not long after, UI designer Michal Malewicz coined the term “neomorphism,” as a new (neo) spin on skeomorphism.
Neumorphic UI blends elements of skeuomorphism and flat design.
Skeuomorphism, while dated, helped early users navigate digital products. While not a household term outside of the design world, anyone who’s used a computer since the mid 1990s will recognize it. This early form of human-centered design intended to make computers easier to navigate by pairing the look of real-world objects with similar digital functions. To sell the similarity, program icons and functions typically took on a three-dimensional appearance using shadows and lighting.
Early examples include trash icons for folders containing deleted files and floppy disk icons as a save function. The first few versions of Apple’s iOS (on iTouch, iPhone) heavily relied on skeuomorphic design: a notes app that looked like a notepad, a calculator app that had touch-screen buttons like a real-world calculator, and so on. Neumorphism brought skeuomorphic visual language into the modern era, wrapped in flat design’s sensibilities. It was nostalgic, but not backwards.
Like low-rise jeans, Skeuomorphism eventually fell out of the public consciousness. Critics cited an overly busy display, limited functionality, and the fact that average users didn’t need real-world markers to understand digital functions anymore. By the 2010s, flat design had largely taken over the UI/UX scene. Simple shapes and elements replaced representations of real-world objects, bringing a clean (if slightly less intuitive) UI appearance to most devices.
Some skeuomorphic elements have persisted in digital products, though; iOS’ Clock app still looks like an old-school clock, for example. But the three-dimensional look favored by skeuomorphism, and later neumorphism, is less common…that was, until Airbnb went retro, reembracing 3D icons (like a hot air balloon to denote an experiences section on its app) throughout its ecosystem. Some trends are cyclical (like vinyl!).
Key Characteristics of Neumorphism in UI Design
Neumorphism may have gone out of style before it had a chance to take off, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have strengths. Here are its key characteristics.
Soft shadows and highlights
Depth is created by layering light and dark to make elements appear embossed or pressed in. Two light sources—one casting shadow, one casting light—simulate tactile feedback.
Elements like buttons, cards, or input fields appear as if they are either raised or pressed into the background, blending seamlessly with the surrounding surface, often creating subtle shadows. Harsh contrasts are avoided to maintain the minimalist aesthetic. And combined, these effects give neumorphic designs a smooth quality that looks soft and touchable.
Rounded corners and clean shapes
Neumorphic UI sticks to simple rectangles and circles, often with rounded edges to amplify the “soft” feel. This has a dual purpose. On one hand, these shapes make the aforementioned depth effect more pronounced. It also keeps in line with the clean, modern look established by flat design.
Low-contrast, muted colors
Here’s where it struggles. Neumorphic design is monochromatic to a fault. Backgrounds and elements are usually the same color with the only real difference in element and background created by the shadow and light work. Slight color gradients can work, but neumorphism’s trademark effect only works with low-saturation colors (pastels, neutrals). That makes for pretty screens—but often unreadable ones. Strong visual hierarchy is sacrificed in the process.
Apple’s Big Sur macOS is the most famous example of neumorphism
Apple’s Big Sur OS launched in late 2020, and featured many of the hallmarks of neumorphism: raised or inset icons, buttons and toggles blended into the background, a monochromatic scheme. Apple avoided some of the pitfalls of the UI style by maintaining strong contrast in critical areas (like settings), but criticism centered on usability and accessibility encouraged Apple to phase out neumorphic effects in subsequent releases. It was slick, but short-lived. Despite some careful contrast choices, accessibility critiques quickly followed, and Apple dialed it back in future releases.
Neumorphism is entirely absent in Apple’s liquid glass UI design, dubbed “glassmorphism,” an entirely new trend that may have something to do with Apple’s Vision Pro. Glassmorphism points to new priorities: clarity, flexibility, and spatial interaction.
The cons: Neumorphism hinders accessibility, visibility, and functionality.
Let’s call it what it is: nice to look at, difficult to use.
Poor visibility
Because neumorphism relies on a low-contrast color scheme, it can be difficult to decipher on/off states and other toggles. Further, low color-contrast ratios can make buttons and fonts disappear into the background. The result? It’s difficult to distinguish between active states and passive ones.
Confusing hierarchy
Everything blends together. You can’t easily tell what’s a button, what’s interactive, or what matters most.
Accessibility issues
Put simply, it doesn’t meet basic contrast and usability standards (especially for users with visual impairments).
Neumorphic design tends to be uniform in implementation, meaning there’s no or little distinction made between elements that showcase critical or peripheral information. Important information may fail to translate, and improper inputs are likely. It’s a recipe for a poor user experience and bad product design.
For an example of melding design, functionality, and accessibility, check out our work with Netflix. We factored in color contrast requirements, focus states, and assistive technology to make the site accessible to all users without sacrificing the crisp functionality and sleek look you expect from an iconic brand.
Aesthetics should never come at the cost of usability. Good UI doesn’t make users think; it lets them act.
Where Neumorphism Shines Best
For all its flaws, neumorphism isn’t totally irrelevant in UI/UX design. Used sparingly, neumorphism can be beautiful.
Brands that prioritize visual styles and require limited information flow or input — like a luxury retailer’s website — can still borrow from the style with success. Apple, a master of innovative UI design, did. In these cases, adding neumorphic depth to cards or buttons can elevate the look without overwhelming users.
Neumorphic elements work well with other minimalist design styles like flat design. When used sparingly, a touch of texture and depth adds spice to user interfaces. In web design, buttons, cards, and input fields are all UI components that benefit from standing out, for example. Plus, the right implementation can emphasize specific elements amid a grander scheme.
It’s a style that works best in moderation and when paired with more conventional patterns. A splash of texture. A hint of dimension. Nothing more.
Big Human: UI/UX design that’s creative and user-friendly
At Big Human, we don’t chase trends. We build for users, brands, and business goals. Our interfaces are intentional: balancing beauty with clarity, personality with performance. Whether you’re rethinking your platform or launching something new, we’re here to help you create digital experiences that resonate. Need a partner who designs for real-world impact? Let’s talk.
Check out more graphic design styles with Big Human’s guide.
