Best Practices to Design UI Cards For Your Website

What are card designs?

Cards are used in abundance right now. From social media sites to E-commerce platforms.

As they are being used for holding small snippets of content, they need to be designed well to balance UI and UX.

Card design UI doesn't have to be super extraordinary or overly complicated. We just need to balance out between what information is needed and necessary to allow users to comprehend what they are looking at.

Before we start going into the design of things, let us clarify what type of information are there usually in a card.

Best Practices for Designing UI Cards

I'm sure that there are many guidelines and even ui kits available on the world wide web to provide inspiration for your card design. But for the sake of learning, let's go through this again in case they have missed out on certain areas.

1. Create good contrast between cards and primary background

There are many ways in design to achieve this. In order to allow users to focus more on the "cards", we can either ensure that the background and the cards differ. Some designers like to add a little bit of effect by adding shadows to create an elevated effect or adding borders around the card.

Again, the objective is to allow users to focus more on the cards rather than to make it look nicer. :)

2. Understanding spacing between content

Creating consistent design while maintaining design hierarchy is something that we should not overlook.

Having a design system of spacings will also be useful when you hand off the designs to your developers.

3. Balancing your font sizes

Some designers might think that the small font sizes look good on their mobile apps or website but content readability is utmost important here. Selecting the correct font type or family and font sizes is crucial as it creates a visual balance and more appealing to the human eye.

Some of the best practices that we at Al-Faiz Design Group put to practice:

1. For headings, use font sizes at least 20px and above, depending on the card sizes. It creates a maximal impact to the human eye
2. For sub-headings, we keep it to 16px - 18px, to create that visual hierarcy.
3. For content or product description, it is best to use between 14px - 16px, for readability purposes.
4. For button labels, we stopped at 16px with a bold style.

4. Defining your loading state

Designing a loading state as close to your content is pretty much appreciated in UX. It gives the user context as to what the screen is going to look like when your content is fully loaded.

Understanding Card-Based Design UI

Understanding card-based design UI involves leveraging UI cards to present grouped related information in a visually appealing and user-friendly manner.

This design pattern utilizes flexible size containers to adapt to various screen sizes, creating a clear visual hierarchy and reducing visual clutter. Key elements of card-based design include balancing text elements with visual elements like eye-catching images and rounded edges.

Each card, or card component, can represent a distinct piece of content, enhancing user experience by making information easily accessible and encouraging interaction.

By focusing on these principles, designers can create effective card layouts that improve readability and engagement across different devices.

Organizing groups related information for Effective UI

Organizing groups related information effectively in UI design involves utilizing a card-based design UI to structure content into easily digestible sections.

By employing UI cards within a card-based layout, designers can group key elements and visual elements into separate cards, enhancing user experience and reducing visual clutter.

Each card component should focus on presenting important details clearly, with a clear visual hierarchy and flexible size container that adapts to different screen sizes.

This approach not only improves readability but also encourages user interaction by making content more accessible and visually appealing.

Emphasizing these principles helps in creating a user-friendly interface that aligns with modern UI design patterns and enhances overall usability.

The Complete entire Card Design: Elements and Layout

The complete card design encompasses various elements and layout strategies to create effective UI cards.

A well-executed card-based design UI involves several key components: the card itself, visual elements, and how these components interact within a card-based layout. Each card, or card component, should clearly present groups of related information with a focus on visual appeal and user experience.

Essential elements include maintaining a clear visual hierarchy, using a flexible size container to adapt to different screen sizes, and incorporating eye-catching images or visual design elements.

The entire card design should aim to balance readability and engagement, avoiding visual clutter and ensuring that each card contributes to a seamless and user-friendly experience.

By paying attention to these details, designers can create UI cards that effectively present information and enhance the overall interface.

UI Design Pattern: Best Practices and Examples

When discussing UI design patterns, particularly card-based design UI, best practices and examples highlight how to effectively use this layout for optimal user experience.

UI cards serve as modular elements within a card-based layout, helping to group related information into easily digestible sections. Key elements of an effective card design include visual elements like eye-catching images, clear text, and a flexible size container that adapts to various screen sizes.

The entire card design should emphasize a clear visual hierarchy to reduce visual clutter and enhance user focus. Using UI design patterns that integrate multiple cards on the same page or in separate regions allows for a user-friendly interface that encourages interaction and easy access to important details.

Examples of successful card UI implementations can be found in mobile apps, news sites, and streaming services, where cards present information in a visually appealing and organized manner, accommodating different devices and screen sizes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, these guidelines are here to help you design better for your card-based website or mobile app. Before applying these guidelines and start designing, you might want to take a look at some of design systems that are widely used as a base for your designs.

1. Material UI
2. Polaris Design System
3. Atlassian Design System

Hope this is useful for you for your next design project.