There is a lot of power in the Appspace card editor and while designing for a new medium can be a challenge we’ve compiled a list of the top five things to remember when starting out with cards, as voted by our Customer Success team.

Start With Your Brand

Many organizations have guidelines that help make sure content has the same look and feel. It’s important for users to understand how to apply their brand standards to Appspace Cards. By setting standards across cards up front it makes updates look like they belong to an organization and avoids post-deployment brand headaches.

Choose Easy-to-Read Fonts

In many cases fonts are pre-defined by brand guidelines, but if not the font you use for text on cards can have a big impact on readability. for example, sans-serif fonts can improve legibility on TVs. The use of bold text can also help, but it’s always best to avoid the use of italic characters.

Use Simple & Contrasting Colors

Color contrast is another primary reason why a card could be hard to read on a screen. Always make sure foreground elements, like text, and the background are significantly different. Keep the number of colors used on a single card to a minimum, and remember to use your brand palette.

Compliment With Images & Video

While media is not required to create a card, adding a visual element can help convey its message more quickly to passersby. Be sure that the image or video quality is good enough to show on a high resolution TV.

Embrace “White Space”

Around 30-40% of your card should be blank or what is known as “white space”. Having areas that do not contain text, media, or data helps draw the viewer’s eye to the content that is present – which is of course the most important component of the card. If you have too much going on within a card, your message may get lost.

In Summary

The name of the game is to keep is clean and simple. Focus viewers on the most important thing – the message. Anything you add to a card should only serve to compliment the message, never detract from it.