Best Practices to Design UI Cards For Your Website

What are UI Cards?

Card designs are one of the most widely used patterns in modern UI design. From social media feeds (like Facebook and Instagram) to e-commerce platforms (like Shopee and Amazon), cards are everywhere. They are used to display snippets of content in a way that is visually appealing, digestible, and interactive.

The goal of card-based design is simple: organize content into bite-sized, relatable pieces while maintaining a clean and functional user interface (UI) and seamless user experience (UX).

But what exactly makes a card design effective?

Common Elements Found in UI Cards

Before we dive into the design aspects, let's clarify the typical types of content found within a card:

• Image or thumbnail (product image, profile photo, banner, etc)
• Title or Heading
• Subheading or supporting text
• Short description
• CTA (Call to Action) button
• Price or Tag (especially in e-commerce)
• User interaction icons (eg. like, share, comment)

Each of these elements contributes to a card's usability and scannablity. They must be arranged in a way that balances visual hierarchy and readability.

Best Practices for Designing UI Cards

Let's walk through the key UX/UI principles you should apply when designing cards:

1. Create strong contrast between cards and background

To draw users’ attention to the cards, create visual separation between the card and its surrounding background.

Tips:

• Use drop shadows or elevation to give a lifted appearance.
• Add borders or subtle outlines
• Use contrasting background colours for visual distinction

The goal here is not to decorate but to highlight information effectively.

2. Maintain consistent spacing and layout in UI Cards

Good spacing improves both visual appeal and readability.

Why it matters:

• Spacing defines content structure and helps users process information
• Essential for responsive design and development handoff.

Tip: Use an 8pt or 4pt grid system to maintain consistent vertical and horizontal spacing across UI Cards.

3. Balance font sizes for readability

Typography hierarchy plays a huge role in card UX. Here's our recommended breakfown at ALF Design Group

• Headings: At least 20px and above for impact
• Subheadings: Between 16px - 18px for structure
• Body text: Between 14px - 16px for easy reading
• Button labels: 16px with bold styling for clarity

Don't compromise legibility just to fit more content. Clarity always wins!

4. Design a realistic loading state for your UI Cards

An overlooked but crucial detail: your loading states should resemble the actual card content. Skeleton loaders or placeholders give users a mental preview of what to expect.

This helps:

• Reduce perceived load time
• Prevent layout shifts
• Keep the UI Card consistent during slow data fetching

Understanding Card-Based Design UI

Card-based UI design is a modular approach to content organisation. Each card acts as a container for related information, visually separating it from other content.

Why card-based design works:

• Naturally mobile-friendly with flexible widths
• Helps break down complex content into bite-size units
• Improves scannability, especially in content-heavy UI

Key Elements:

• Clear visual hierarchy
• Balanced text and imagery
• Consistent padding and alignment
• Responsive container behaviour

Examples of Effective UI Card Design

You can easily spot great card UI on platforms like:

• Shopee.sg - their product listings in grid-based cards
• Pinterest - vertically stacked content cards
• Netflix - horizontal carousel cards for movies
• Awwwards.com - feature cards for top website showcases

Organizing Content Through Card Layouts

To maximize card effectiveness:

• Group related information together logically
• Limit each card to one main action or intent
• Use images to provide visual context
• Keep the card self-contained: users shouldn't need to decode anything

Bonus Tip: Use hover effects, tap states, or animations to make cards more interactive without overwhelming the experience.

Design System Inspiration for UI Card Design

To ensure consistence and scalability, consider referencing established design systems like:

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

These systems offer reusable card components, spacing standards, and typography rules that you can adopt.

Conclusion: Why are UI Cards important?

Card UI isn’t just a trend. It’s a proven design pattern that helps organise content for clarity, responsiveness, and engagement. Whether you’re building a news feed, product catalog, or dashboard UI, card-based layouts deliver better UX and scalable design systems.

Recap of Key Takeaways:

• Use contrast, spacing and font hierarchy to guide attention
• Focus on function, not just form
• Always account for mobile and loading states
• Use design systems to maintain consistency

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