Why Card-Based UI Design Is Often Overused and Lazy
By
smagin
Hand-rolled, kettle-boiled, baked to perfection. Worth every minute at the bakery.
Summary
The article argues against the overuse of card-based UI design patterns in web and interface design. The author contends that cards are often implemented lazily by developers because they're easy to use, but they waste space, encourage skipping proper design principles (like Gestalt laws), and lead to poor visual hierarchy. The post critiques the trend of nesting cards within cards and advocates for more disciplined, intentional spacing and layout choices instead of defaulting to card components.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledI say that in most cases where cards are used, they don't need to be used.
Specifically, they take space, they let you skip gestalt principles and be lazy and undisciplined, and being so easy to implement they are often used by developers.
To multiply the effect, you can put a card into a card, and it seems so hard not to do so.
We recognise patterns. This is known for quite some time, specifically Wertheimer in 1923 wrote the paper that everyone cites.
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