The Web Design Trends Session That Continued for 15 Years Returns in Osaka This July
The Web Design Trends session, which has been held at CSS Nite Shift and in various regions across Japan, is coming back. I do not know whether this will be a one-time session, but just when I was thinking that it might be good to do it once at this point, I was contacted by Koyama-san from Re:Creator's Kansai, Rin Yano, and Ueki-san from Infoaxia, which led to this event.
Events Leading Up to the Restart
The Web Design Trends session, which had continued for 15 consecutive years since 2008, took a break after 2022. I hope to write in detail somewhere about the reasons, but in any case, many things overlapped, and I asked to take a break for the time being.
After that, the world became a post-COVID world, and before long, it became the age of AI in full bloom. At the time, I was quite focused on XR, but the era became entirely AI-colored, and I felt that something like the first year of XR had moved farther away again.
Even so, at the end of 2022 and the end of 2023, I continued steadily collecting captures. Although I did not hold Web Design Trends sessions as public talks, in web production work I was doing private Web Design Trends sessions for clients.
Then in October 2024, Ueki-san, who has long continued working in the accessibility field, proposed bringing Web Design Trends back.
I thought that throughout my life, I will probably continue doing something Web Design Trends-like in one form or another.
This Time It Will Be Held Together with the Accessibility Session "A11y Osaka Meetup"
Previously, at Shift events, we had interactions where each session touched on the other, but this time we are thinking of going a little deeper. The idea is to have the accessibility team look at the sites covered in the Web Design Trends session and introduce various comments and practices.
I hope we can hear things like, "If you introduce that style, these are the points you should be careful about."
We Will Also Look at Trends in Overseas AI-Related Sites
Now that AI is in full bloom, attention naturally tends to go toward what AI generates, but what trends are there in AI-related service sites?
This time, we plan to check 356 AI-related service sites and introduce tendencies and related observations. Once I gathered that many, there were many sites, services, and software I had never seen before, and it was very interesting.
Of course, we also plan to look at the usual fixed-point observation site groups. That means the usual checks of about 3,000 listed companies, 1,700 local government sites, 500 global sites, 218 overseas startup sites, and overseas sites that became topics of conversation.
Slowing Down a Little and Looking More Carefully
The pattern we used in the past was to look at website renewals and the one-year movement of sites that became topics of conversation. This time, we plan to look at changes in web design over a two-year span from 2023 through the end of 2024.
When you actually summarize two years, it is not as simple as "2023 was like this, and 2024 was like that." The changes feel more like a gradient.
When I started the Web Design Trends session, I was in my early thirties, but this year I will turn 49. When I was younger, there were many people who kept watching web design trends, but I feel there are not many people who continue checking them even as they get older.
In that situation, I hope that from the position of someone who has watched for many years, I can look at the current era and think about it together with everyone.
I Plan to Return the Session Style to a Category-Based Format
For the past five years or so, or perhaps even longer, Web Design Trends had shifted into a ranking-style presentation.
This began because I did not want sites that did not fit trend topics but still deserved to be covered to overflow, but it became harder to describe what kinds of things were common.
After thinking about various options, I decided to return to the old-fashioned style of introducing things by categories centered on trend topics.
So the event will be held in Osaka, and if you can make it to Osaka, I hope you will come see it. I hope it becomes a session where we look back on these two years and think about the next two years. See you in Osaka!
Event Information and How to Register
Registration is open at The 44th ReCri Seminar "The Return of Web Design Trends & A11y Osaka Meetup" - Re:Creator's Kansai.
- Date and time: Saturday, July 12, 2025, from 15:00 to 18:30. There will be a networking session at the same venue until 19:30 after the event. Doors open at 14:30. There will be no online streaming this time.
- Venue: Osaka Sangyo Sozokan Event Hall (1-4-5 Honmachi, Chuo-ku, Osaka)
- Participation fee: 4,500 yen
Sponsors are also very much wanted.