Card

Usage

When to use

Use a card in the following cases:

• To present a summary and link to additional details and information.
• To group information into logical chunks.
• When the card surface itself is an interactive element.
• To create flexible layouts.
• To display information of one topic.
• To create a dashboard or show a variety of content types at the same time.

Types

There are the following card types:

Card

• Unlike a container a card is a summary that leads to additional details and information.
• Use a card as interactive element (clickable as a complete object) when it only has one action.
• The card itself is the interactive element.

Card with additional actions

• Use a card with additional actions when the card has more than one action.
• Unlike a simple card this type of card is not the interactive/clickable element itself.

General construction

A card consists of the following elements:

1. Header (optional)

• Can contain a supporting visual, title, subline, icons or actions.

2. Content (optional)

• Can be an image, video, chart, key value pair or any other data visualisation, text, list, table, dividers.
• Mix multiple content types where necessary, to create the card you need.

3. Footer (optional)

• Can contain additional content like buttons, badges, icons, actions or meta information.

4. Background

• The background has several elevation states. These elevation states (shadows) help indicating a card and the interactivity of it.
• The background is required.

Header construction

1. Use a title (optional) to explain the context of a card.
2. Use a subline (optional) to give additional content-related information.
3. Use a menu (optional) to place additional actions.

Footer construction

• Card footers (optional) can contain buttons. The type of button depends on the importance of the action. This can be a mix of primary, secondary or ghost buttons. All of these can be icon-only buttons.
• Use primary buttons sparingly on one screen.

Options

The following card options are available:

Card content

Individual cards can be created if the default arrangements don’t fit to create a card you need.

It is recommended to use content like image, video, chart, key value pair or any other data visualisation, list, table, dividers, text.

It is not recommended to put forms or containers into cards.

Card text alignment

Custom background color

By default all cards have a white background color. It is possible to change the background color to any color needed.

Behavior

Card

The whole card is clickable and leads to further information.

Card with additional actions

There has to be at least one action that leads to further information.

Card scrolling

It is possible to individually set the height of the cards. If there is more content then available space the content is scrollable.

Do’s & Don’ts

• Show cards next to each other, in a list or in a grid or group them in a container.
• Do not nest cards in cards.

• Try to use equal heights in one row and equal gutter widths over all rows.
• Do not use too many variable heights and gutter widths.