Cards act as an entry point to more detailed information. A card is container for a few short, related pieces of information. It roughly resembles a playing card in size and shape, and is intended as a linked, short representation of a conceptual unit.
Anatomy
Card layouts can vary to support the types of content they contain.
| Elements | Mandatory |
|---|---|
| thumbnail | no |
| title | yes |
| description | no |
| meta | no |
| tags | no |
| infos | no |
When to use
- browsing for information (as opposed to searching)
- grouping heterogeneous types of content
- allowing users to scan through content in small portions
- to display structured content
- to make information discoverable
- the user goals that the card-based web design best responds to:
- scrolling through
- scanning through
- browsing through
When not to use
- searching for information (as opposed to browsing).
- on small screen display avoid using too many cards as they force users to scroll down and rely on their short-term memory. This creates a cognitive overload, a negative user experience.
Do's
- use cards to emphasize on contents
- only display the most relevant information on each card illustration: card with a thumbnail, title, description
- keep the amount of links on the cards as low as possible
Don'ts
- overuse cards
- limit the amount of cards to small groups of items
- limit to 3-4 cards within a row
- use cards as an image gallery, use gallery instead.
- use cards to display images or video, use media container instead.
- display too many links on a cards, the main and ideally only action on card should remain to navigate to the content it represent.