Ask us anything about HubSpot's new product look and feel | September 8-12, 2025

[jcolman]

Curious about the visual changes in HubSpot's product? We know that a visual refresh can feel like a big shift, that's why we're creating a space for open conversation, transparency, and support to help you understand what's changing and why.

Join us for an Ask Me Anything (AMA) event from September 8–12 where Hayley Hughes, Product Design Director, and members of her design systems team will be on hand to answer your questions about the updated look and feel of our product.

You can try the new visual theme by opening your Account menu in HubSpot’s top navigation and selecting the “Switch to the new theme” link. Try using it for a few days so you can tell us how the new look and feel changes your product experience.

Learn more about HubSpot's new product look and feel from Mike Holzer, Head of UX and Executive VP at HubSpot.

This AMA is your chance to:

• Get your questions answered directly by the people designing these changes
• Understand the reasoning behind our design decisions
• Learn about what's staying the same and what's evolving
• Share your feedback and concerns with our design team
• Discover the latest accessibility improvements and what’s coming next

We’ll discuss:

• Why we’re making these changes and how you’ll benefit from them
• What, specifically, is changing visually in the product and why
• Our goals for these changes, such as improving accessibility
• We’d especially like to hear your feedback! What’s working well for you and what’s not?

Drop your questions in the comments below and we'll get back to you between September 8–12. We're excited to connect with you and help you make the most of HubSpot's visual refresh.

— The HubSpot Design Systems Team

[matt_scott]

Hey @Liz 
Thanks for getting back,
For the screenshot I shared that's in the page editor, as a web developer we try our best to make things easy for clients to edit, I need to try and seperate different parts of the module settings into groups to make it clear for non technical people to edit pages. I want it to be obvious when someone is in an expanded group, or in the next group or field, some field types also introduce their own groups (e.g. forms) which if you have in an expanded group can be confusing (it was also confusing in the old theme but I think visually harder in the new) So my above suggestion is not necessarily for my workflow but for our clients.

In terms of my workflows, I use all sorts of pages in hubspot, as we look at varying solutions for clients,
I started writing a list of areas then in changed to elements sorry:
Record Pages (I really like the new seperation of the left and right sidebar cards in the new theme and the grey background helps)
Views - I really like the new beta view and there is some background grey that really helps things like buttons stand out.
Buttons - In general I'm not a fan of white background with a border buttons, It's just not super clear that they're buttons, the black buttons are too dark and very contrasty (see below)
Colours - I do find the new colours quite hard on the eyes, The very contrasty almost black text on fully white is hard on the eyes, The new purple is also quite hard on the eyes (I got a migraine yesterday and had to switch to the classic theme which has much more muted soft tones)

Hope this wasn't too rambly
Thanks
Matt

[lizoh]

Thanks so much for this detailed feedback, @matt! It’s really helpful to hear both what’s working and where things feel harder. The high contrast for colors was intentional to improve accessibility and we definitely don’t want to cause any discomfort. We will look into this more especially as we consider customization. All of this thoughtful intel will help us as we refine the experience further. Thank you, again!

[WMM_Inbound]

Indeed, the lack of colors even increases the cognitive load in an other area than before. While not that "noisy" or "loud" when it comes to many colors, now i have to do cognitive load to differentiate areas that was previoulsy clearly separated by colors. So i guess the congnitive load just shifted to a different area instead of going away.

[lizoh]

Thanks for the feedback, @WMM_Inbound. We’re exploring ways to improve hierarchy and contrast while keeping the design clean and simple. Bringing in some more color intentionally is one way we can help with the cognitive load. Can you please share which specific screens or workflows feel most difficult to scan now? 

[WMM_Inbound]

I would like to know why the Reporting page has a light grey background color of #f0f0f0 (which looks a lot better in my opinion!) and others like Contacts or Companies don´t have that.  Would the product team be open to give the use the ability to either a) stay with the old theme or b) give the user the ability to adjust the colors?

To be honest, i really dislike the color theme and i think it would not be a good move to "force" a big change like this on the user. I understand that a lot of users really love it ( i heard positive feedback at Inbound), but equally i am sure that i am not the only one who dislikes it.

[colingp]

Thanks for pointing this out. The different background on the Reporting page is something we’re testing. Our aim is consistency across HubSpot, but we’re rolling out changes gradually so we can refine based on feedback like yours.

The new index design (in Public Beta now) brings that consistency into the overall experience. You can try it out under “Product Updates” in your Account Menu, then look for “Flexible CRM Views.”

Right now, you can still switch back to the old theme if the new one isn’t working for you. Longer term, we’re building more flexibility, including options like dark mode and additional appearance controls. Are there particular pages where the new palette feels most distracting or tiring to you?

[WMM_Inbound]

Will there ever be a "Dark Mode" Version of HubSpot?

[Hayley_Hughes]

Hi @WMM_Inbound! The foundation we’ve built this year gives us the flexibility to add appearance options like dark mode that weren’t possible before. While it’s not available today, it’s on our roadmap for the future. Thanks for asking, we've received a lot of interest on this one.  

[WMM_Inbound]

Wow, thats great. I mean, I can see that there is a lot of exciting options ahead for us and i trust that the UI / UX team has a good judgement on this. I think you can silence most sceptics of the new change with the message that they will be able to either have options to adjust colors or options to choose from themes. 

If i where in your team i would probably say "i am fine if someone wants to choose really weird color combinations" - so i would give the ability to choose colors for certain areas like the sidebar. But i also understand the counter argument and the ask for more control on HubSpots side, which would then call for the selection of themes that are provided by Hubspot.

[WMM_Inbound]

With the Index Pages now purely black and white,  i think they look a little bit "washed out" now. I get that the reasoning behind it, but i feel like i need to concertrate more now to distinguish the elements because everything is now black/white.

If "congnitive load" is a big concideration, i am not getting why, at least on index pages, each company has its own logo present. Users with a lot of clients see a lot of small logos, but i would argue that most of them don´t recognize them anyways, so  i would like to know what was the consideration to list the logos?

[colingp]

Thanks for raising this. The refresh was designed to reduce visual noise so key details like badges and alerts are easier to see. We’ve kept logos on index pages since some customers use them as quick anchors, but we know they can add clutter, especially with longer client lists. The new index design (in Public Beta now) brings more color into the overall experience. You can try it out under “Product Updates” in your Account Menu, then look for “Flexible CRM Views.”

Your point about cognitive load is important. We want index pages to feel simple, not demanding. Do logos make your work faster, or would removing them actually reduce effort for you?

[JSmith55]

Hi @jcolman 👋

1. Is the bigger goal with the new theme color going to be utilizing the account's brand colors and allowing them to customize their platform around their brand?!
2. We're testing the new, improved company and contact record layout, and love it. We helped sculpt the conditional options on all cards and sections. We're also testing out the flexible crm views betas and loving them!  You're on the right path here.
3. Adding UI extensibility is a game-changer.
4. I'd love to know if there's going to be the ability to turn off menu items on the left by user views?  It's getting overwhelming where a sales rep sees the Marketing tab at all.  It would be nice to have in custom views the ability to manipulate the tabs on the left menu as well!

[colingp]

So glad to hear the new layouts and flexible views are helping your team. Extensibility is a major goal for us, and what you’re testing now is just the start of giving teams more control.

On navigation, you’re spot on. Many customers tell us that tailoring what people see by role would make HubSpot feel simpler and more focused. That isn’t available today, but it’s something we’re actively thinking about. Would trimming the left menu be most valuable for reducing distraction for sales reps, or for enforcing clearer permissions by role?

[mgeorgieva]

I personally really like the idea to offer the option to match your brand colors/kit and we've heard this suggestion from several customers and partners. We'll be evaluating this in our next iteration phases.

[WMM_Inbound]

maybe the primary brand color can become a special "highlight" color or something, like "choose a theme that you like and combine it with your brands main color", or something like that. Because than i can make sure that my bright yellow color is not sitting on a orange/red nav bar, which would be super hard to read, but more on a darker blue / black nav bar. 

[VictoriaGumaer]

Hi, JSmith.  We are currently researching the ability to turn off menu items in the left navigating bar.  If you'd like to chat and hear more about our plans you can feel free to book time with me here. We would love to get your feedback.

[JSmith55]

@VictoriaGumaer booked!

[WMM_Inbound]

"It would be nice to have in custom views the ability to manipulate the tabs on the left menu as well! " - I second this, especially if cognitive load is a big part of the consideration.

It would also go well with the fact that Cards have the ability to be either shown/hidden based on certain conditions.

[colingp]

You’re right, reducing cognitive load is one of our top design goals. We’ve heard similar feedback that tailoring the navigation menu by role or workflow could make HubSpot easier to use. While this isn’t possible today, we’ve laid some of the groundwork for more flexibility like this in the future. We want HubSpot to be a CRM that works with you, not against you. I’m glad you’re enjoying the card conditionality! More functionality like that is coming soon. 

[melindagreen]

agree. the current shade of magenta makes the white font/icons actuallly look slightly pink, and there's a lot of visual flash to them on a high-res screen.

[lizoh]

Thanks for the helpful feedback, @melindagreen! We will test the dark magenta with the white font and icons on different screens to improve contrast and adjust our colors as needed while keeping accessibility intact. We will look out for any color distortion from the contrast as well.