A collection of the best futuristic UI design inspiration (websites & apps) and tips on things to think about when designing futuristic UIs.
Note! Most of these designs are not my own, and credits are given to each designer/owner under every image.
Related: Cyberpunk UI Website Design Inspiration
Tips
The easiest way to make UI design look futuristic is to take inspiration from things such as:
- Game GUIs (look for futuristic, sci-fi and cyberpunk games such as Cyberpunk 2077)
- High-tech companies that aim to look futuristic (e.g. SpaceX, IBM Watson, Nasa Mars)
- Sci-fi and cyberpunk movies and art
In my experience, there are two “looks” for futuristic UIs. The dark mode, and the light mode. If you want a dark mode design, then it works really well to go towards the cyberpunk style, using dark base colors and highlighting details and text using brighter neon-looking colors. If you instead want an airy, fresh, and light design, it works well to move towards a luxurious modern look; using a light-colored base and kinder colors (light blue, light gradients, and light grey boxes).
Some cooler concept work implement details such as:
- AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) scenes
- Highly polished animations and 3D models
- Super minimalistic fonts
- Voice assistant interfaces
Great futuristic UI designers:
I post some futuristic-looking graphics on my Instagram as well.
Futuristic Website UI Design
Let’s start off by looking at some website designs!
First, we have the real current web design of Nasa’s Mars page (mars.nasa.gov). Isn’t it always more fun to look at real-life examples? This design is actually quite futuristic, compared to how most other websites look today. The elements that make this design futuristic is:
- The neon-colored circular modules that aren’t in neat lines, and have opaque backgrounds. If you visit the website you’ll also notice that you can interact with each module, using the small arrows. It’s actually a really unique UI component that is more common in game GUIs than on real websites.
- The minimalistic and thin font choice. It’s very common with super thin sans-serif fonts when designing futuristic looks.
- The neon colors
- Opaque/translucent elements
Next up, we have the real website of the Tesla Cybertruck. It’s mostly the image that makes it look futuristic, and I guess that’s one take-away from it. But it is also again, the super minimal sans-serif font in quite a thin boldness. The text below the truck also has a slight glow-effect to it, which you can see if you watch closely. As well as the bottom with the classic cyberpunk cut-off shape on the bottom corner.
The last one of the real website examples I will show is the official website of the game Cyberpunk 2077. It is in my opinion, one of the most futuristic and creatively designed and coded websites. It’s pretty hard to create all the cyberpunk UI elements in code (as I’ve tried many times myself on this website). So, I am really amazed by all the small UI details that they’ve successfully implemented. One quick example is the corners they’ve cut out around the video player in the middle. That in itself is not an easy thing to do.
The challenge with creating real websites with futuristic UIs is the technical challenges and limitations. There are people who work as creative coders who specialize in turning artsy design into code, but it’s a fairly new niche. And there’s also the challenge with how to make very creative and artsy designs responsive (adapt the content between different screen sizes such as desktop and mobile screens for example). A company also often wants all potential customers to be able to use their websites, and for example not just someone who sits on the high-tech computer with all updated software and all necessary frameworks installed.
Fun fact: From what I’ve read, when it comes to creating more innovative web design today, people are often using illustrations (in SVG formats) that are then put onto the website. SVGs are scalable in a nice way, and so they work great for creating responsive websites.
But anyway, moving on, here’s a couple of conceptual futuristic website UI designs that haven’t been implemented on real websites yet (or at least not that I know of).
As mentioned earlier, Gleb Kuznetsov is one of the designers I admire the most. He makes the absolute most gorgeous and futuristic-looking graphics, and it’s not limited to website or app design. Here is one of his light mode futuristic website designs. One of the things he does best is his illustrations. But do also observe again the minimal sans-serif fonts and light gradients since it’s a light design.
This design by Katerina Krukova is pretty unique. I haven’t seen many well-executed UI designs in this retro-futuristic style. It reminds me of hip album covers from the 90s but made into a website design. The left part with the menu is really nicely done.
Futuristic App UI Design
Moving on to futuristic app UI designs!
Offriginal has created this highly detailed and beautiful app design. It seems like the app shows futuristic technologies and equipment such as helmets and armor. And me, who gets excited by futuristic things such as ( Military Helmets, Gloves, and Cars) absolutely love this concept. I’d download it right away. We should also note the cool Neumorphism UI details he implemented on the “Settings”, “Back”, and “Language” buttons.
Fact: Neumorphism UI is when it looks like elements are in 3D, like physical elements with highlights and shadows from light sources. It’s been a recent UI trend during 2020-2021.
Thanks for reading! I hope this could give you some good inspiration.
