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Neubrutalism style in UX: a twist on the dominant modern minimalist

A quick look at what the style is, why we need it, and a list of websites using it in different ways.

Maria Taneva
UX Collective
6 min readJul 26, 2022

Neubrutalism heading in capital letters with icons in the style

I’m really into Neubrutalism. Since discovering it, I’ve seen a number of articles exploring what it is, and examples of it in use with varying degrees of success. I think it is worth exploring this style in more depth because it offers a twist on the dominant “modern minimalist” design style. It can also be quite fun when done right.

Why do we need something different?

Recently I was looking at examples of popular web apps for project management, and after reviewing quite a good number of them, I came to a realisation.

If it were not for the logo in the side navigation bar, I would have no idea which app I am looking at.

Sure they might offer different features, but even then I struggled to remember which feature I saw in which app. The UI for all the apps is strikingly similar, and if you look at them for long enough as I did, there is nothing to differentiate from one to the next aside from the logo in the side navigation bar and the forgettable colour scheme.

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Published in UX Collective

We believe designers are thinkers as much as they are makers. Curated stories on UX, Visual & Product Design. https://linktr.ee/uxc

Written by Maria Taneva

UX designer, former architect. Design topics, changing careers, design systems, books, video games 📚 and other things in between.

Responses (12)

What are your thoughts?

How is this related to UX? :)

What a great compilation and explanation on Neubrutalism and here is my 50+ claps 👋

UX = People First. This article makes me think of the abrasive people in my life, both those that I know personally and those who have motivated me to be better and/or think differently. My take:
Brutalist personalities are VERY challenging to engage…