Beyond Flat: Harnessing Neumorphism in Modern Interfaces

September 19, 2025

12minutes read

Dasha
Copywriter

One of the more recent UI design trends is neumorphism, one of the descendants of two of its precursors: flat design and skeuomorphism. Neumorphism creates a bold user interface with its minimal shadows, dull color schemes, and mid-air objects.

What effects does neumorphism have on accessibility trade-offs, however, if aesthetics are ignored? Is it better to keep this design trend in your portfolio, or does it have a place in actual digital products? We'll go over all you need to know about neumorphism, including best practices and useful hints for applying it to your upcoming design endeavor.

What is Neumorphism Design?

“Neumorphism is a UI design trend that lies between skeuomorphism and flat design.

It is also referred to as "new skeuomorphism." — UX Design Institute

A neumorphism design approach used in graphical user interfaces is called neomorphism. It is frequently distinguished by a light and gentle appearance (referred to as "soft UI") with components that seem to dent into or protrude from the background rather than float on top of it [2].

	Features
Subtle shadows	Neumorphism relies heavily on the use of soft, gentle shadows to create depth. The shadows are often used to simulate extrusion or intrusion on the screen. The objects appear as though they are inset into the background or gently projecting out of it.
Light and dark color contrast	It utilizes an array of light and dark hues of color to contribute to the depth and dimension. Equilibrium between light and dark is critical to achieve the neumorphic effect.
Semi-flat colors	Neumorphism moves away from flat design but still uses mostly soft, muted colors. These low-saturation shades help create a gentle and subtle visual appearance.
Rounded corners	The soft curves of UI elements give neumorphic designs their signature squishy and playful feel.
Minimalistic approach	While shadows and highlights are the stars of the show, neumorphism generally leans toward simplicity.
Tactility and texture	Neumorphism’s goal is to give things a physical, material-like quality. Its subtle gradients and shadows create an effect that almost feels touchable.

Additionally, we observed some time ago that this change was occurring everywhere, with Apple serving as a prime example. The push for "super flat and minimal" was resisted, and the result was a slightly more textureless 3D model feel. It appears to be popular.

Skeuomorphism vs neumorphism vs glassmorphism

The Rise of the Soft UI Trend

Neumorphism's ability to give digital interfaces a new, contemporary appearance is responsible for its rise in UI design. Despite being a relatively new soft UI trend, it has solidified its place in the design world by being embraced by a number of major tech companies. The trend offers a user-friendly compromise between the detailed realism of skeuomorphism and the clean simplicity of flat design. It works particularly well with apps that require a more tactile interaction, like those for home automation or music production.

Pros and Cons of Neumorphism Design

The "freshness" (for as long as it lasts) is the primary advantage of neumorphism design. It distinguishes the interface and gives it a "new feel." Additionally, it can be combined with different styles to avoid being overly "soft extruded plastic" everywhere.

However, there are certain issues that must be resolved. Although we're still searching, the two primary issues we've discovered thus far are:

Accessibility
Ways to efficiently code this

The primary issue with the figure-to-background contrast ratio is that there is no contrast to measure when the two colors are the same. Since there is an objective shadow, we could try to measure the first pixel outside of it. These contrast values are the result of the aforementioned example.

Adding Depth with Minimalist Textures

In UI design, the neomorphic effect is created by carefully balancing colors, highlights, minimalist textures, and shadows to produce a soft, inset, or embossed appearance. This is a list:

Steps	Actions
Select a Palette of Gentle Colors	Use a gentle, nearly monochromatic color scheme to begin. Since neomorphic elements typically have very subtle color differences, pick a background color and then pick elements that are either slightly lighter or darker.
Design Background	Make the background light in color. Since neomorphism mainly uses light and shadow to create depth, the elements stand out against a pastel or neutral background.
Create the Elements	Use the same background color but a slightly different hue for your user interface elements (such as buttons and sliders). This slight color variation contributes to the delicate, understated appearance.
Use gentle highlights and shadows.	Shadows: To add depth, use a soft box shadow. Make use of a more intense shade of the color of your element. The shadow should be applied subtly and frequently on the element's right and bottom, for example, to produce a raised look. Highlights: Using a lighter hue than the element's color, apply a light source as an inner shadow on the sides opposite the box shadow placement. This enhances the 3D appearance by simulating the impact of the element being lighted from above.

These guidelines will help you develop a user interface (UI) design that makes use of neumorphism's distinctive tactile feel, making it not just aesthetically pleasing but also accessible and easy to use.

When to Use Neumorphism in Modern Interfaces

Neumorphism has been a prominent trend in UI/UX design, but it can be less typical for certain well-known apps to embrace this style outright since mainstream applications place a priority on usability and accessibility, which can clash with the subtle neumorphic design.

Although mainstream programs may quietly use neumorphism, they usually do so while carefully weighing other design factors to guarantee accessibility and usefulness for a wide range of users. Because visual treatments like neumorphism can clash with accessibility and usability standards, they should be used rarely and only in conceptual or specialist contexts.

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