Welcome to 2026.
The new year is the perfect time to look back at what changed in the last 12 months and get ahead of what’s coming next.
In terms of what changed: 2025 was the year the general public started using AI en masse for coding and design. People made some amazing stuff.
But in 2026, builders will have to take things to a new level to stay competitive as AI coding and design becomes increasingly commonplace.
In a recent video tutorial, designer and power-user Jakub Skrzypczak walked through:
Why early 2025 AI websites all looked the same
What the new baseline looks like now
The exact techniques you can use to create websites that feel premium, intentional, and genuinely stunning in 2026
Check out the video or skim through the key learnings below.
The 2025 problem: Everything looked the same
By the end of 2025, most people familiar with vibecoding could tell when a website or app was built with AI. A lot of AI builders generated pretty similar-looking outputs.
If you used any AI builder last year, you probably saw:
Heavy gradients everywhere
Rigid cookie-cutter grids
Overuse of emojis
The same repetitive section order (features, pricing, testimonials, CTA)
The same generic fonts
The same layout patterns on every “new” website
It was a great starting point for speed, but it created a landscape where everything felt samey and, of course, distinctly AI-generated.
The new baseline: A one-sentence prompt gets you to “really good”
In 2026, you can type “create a personal portfolio landing page” and get something with:
Dynamic layout shifts (not rigid grids)
Hover animations that feel intentional
Modern spacing and rounded corners
Subtle motion and depth
Clean forms and CTA design
Again, that’s with just one prompt.
This is great for builders whose primary goal is fast execution. But it also means the web will get increasingly flooded with competent design. And naturally, if you want your site to stand out, you need to move beyond competent.
You need to build websites that feel:
Cinematic
Tactile
Composed
Surprising
Alive
Let’s walk through how to make it happen.
6 ways to make your website stand out in 2026
1. Add motion in the hero
If you do one thing this year, do this: a video background in your hero section.
It instantly creates an atmosphere for visitors. And it looks expensive. Best of all, it’s a lot easier than it sounds.
Background video: tools you’ll need
Workflow
Create a static image in Midjourney. Get inspiration from the Styles tab.
Upload to Gemini (Veo 3.1).
Describe the motion: what moves (clouds, light, particles) and what stays static.
Download the video.
Slow it down and loop it in CapCut.
Add it to your Bolt project: create a public/ folder, drop in background.mp4, and prompt Bolt to use it in the hero.
2. Use abstract motion (shaders and reactive backgrounds)
The easiest way to make your site look unique and custom in 2026 is to use shaders or interactive backgrounds.
Two go-to sources:
Shaders from paper.design
Open paper.design
Hit Shaders (hotkey S)
Pick an effect and customize the presets
Right-click → Copy as Tailwind
Paste into Bolt and use as your background
Now your site feels like a premium product demo.
Interactive components from ReactBits and 21st.dev
Find anything that could work as a background
Copy the code and paste into Bolt with instructions
This should take only one or two prompts. But once you get it working, your site will feel dynamic and lively.
Other great sources for interactive components:
Unicorn Studio (WebGL and 3D magic)
3. Surprise people with composition
For years, the default was edge-to-edge design. But in 2026, giving your content plenty of whitespace and breathing room is much more stylish and striking.
When you wrap your experience inside a container with padding and rounded edges, the site starts to feel like a premium object in a chalky museum; a window into another world. It feels like you’re looking at a movie screen vs. a flat page.
So don’t be afraid of empty space. Constrain the layout to increase the perceived quality of your site instantly.
4. Design directly in code
This is going to be a defining trend in 2026: designing directly in code.
Old workflow: Figma → three options → dev → regret → redo
New workflow: Bolt → generate → iterate → compare → ship
In Bolt.new, you can ask for multiple versions of the same landing page and switch between them.
Prompt:
suggest 3 great UI alternatives for this landing page — let’s make one where the entire page is sort of “framed” inside a cool full-page container. Let’s try all three and create a version switcher in the bottom-right corner
Fast iteration in Bolt.new makes you a better designer, because you can test in context instead of making decisions based off flat files.
5. Use materials: liquid glass, liquid metal, tactile UI
2026 is the year things get fluid and dreamy. We’re likely going to see a rise of:
Liquid glass
Liquid metal
Glossy, physical-feeling UI elements
Interfaces that feel “touchable”
Analog devices are coming back. And similarly, people want to feel like they can reach out and touch what they see on their screen.
A quick pro tip: use materials sparingly in dashboards. The UI still needs to be readable. That said, for buttons, navbars, cards, and hero UI, go crazy.
Glass button effect (copy/paste)
Copy the full glass button CSS from Jakub’s original tutorial and paste it into your Bolt.new project.
6. Stop using default fonts and safe colors
AI will almost always pick Inter or Roboto and stick to safe blue and gray. That’s why a lot of AI designs blend together.
If you want to stand out, experiment aggressively with typography, font weight, line height, font color, and bold palettes.
Prompt:
I want to experiment with fonts. Can we add a font switcher in the bottom-right corner so I can test seven alternatives? Let’s pick fonts that are quite different from each other, and bold, creative, not obvious choices for hero typography (no Inter, Roboto, etc.). I want to be able to change the font colour, weight, and line spacing.
Combine these elements (but don’t overdo it)
Once you’ve got:
A motion background
Surprising composition
Glass or metal materials
Typography that isn’t generic
Layout iterations
Subtle hover animations
You can combine them for maximum impact.
For example, you could throw in:
A diagonal axis composition (elements placed to match the visual weight in the background)
A glass navbar surface that changes depending on scroll position
A video background plus version switcher to compare layouts instantly
Just don’t do everything at once or it’ll look too chaotic.
Your 2026 design prompt vocabulary
These are the words that consistently get better results in Bolt.new prompts:
Premium
Subtle
Minimalistic
Aesthetic
Smaller
2026 based
They help steer the model away from the default AI design and toward modern, intentional styling.
Your 2026 starter resource pack
If you want to build stunning websites this year, this is your toolbox:
Core
Images and video
Shaders and materials
Components
3D and WebGL
Ready to create a website fit for the future? Build it with Bolt.new.
