It looks like the home screen lists all of the student’s subjects, with one card per subject. Each card displays three upcoming events for that subject, and the users three most recent notes for that subject. Am I getting that right?
This design seems ok to me but I don’t know if it’s the best way to
display information to the user. Am I just completely wrong and
there’s an obviously better way to display information on a card.
TL;DR
There’s nothing wrong with the design, but I would ask myself two questions:
- Do I really need the truncated notes on these cards?
- Is there a better way to encorporate the “All Notes” and “All Events” links into the card.
The Thought Process
On the face of it, the design looks fine. To know the “best way” to display information to users of your app, you’ll need to reason through what your users are doing with your app, why they’re doing it, and consider the reasons for each element in your design.
It seems like you have an opportunity to trim down these cards. Not knowing your users I can’t say much about what’s “right” or “best, but I can share the thought process that leads me to that conclusion.
The card might be doing too much
Each subject card seems to have two responsibilities:
- display the subject’s upcoming events
- display the student’s most recent notes for that subject.
If you’re at all worried about space, or information overload this might be one responsibility too many.
How I might reason through a redesign
I would probably think critically about the main purpose the home screen serves for the student. Maybe it’s most valuable as a reminder about upcoming events, or maybe students will use it to prioritize studying specific notes. Maybe something else.
Right now I’ll assume they’ll use it primarily as a reminder about upcoming events, but of course you should make your own decision about the primary purpose of these cards.
If this was my project, I would ask How does each element in this card serve the card’s primary purpose?
The card’s title and sub-title
These give context.
What is the quiz or test about, and when in the day is it happening. Those seem valuable enough.
The card’s event titles (ie “Chapter 5 Quiz”)
They’re the reminders themselves.
The sub-heading under these event titles give context about when the event is happening. Displaying just a few upcoming events means the student can easily prioritize their concern about events. This all seems to directly serve the main purpose of the card.
The truncated notes
You can’t really study them because they’re incomplete. Maybe they give the student context about what they need to study for these upcoming events.
Following that line of thought I might ask do they actually need that context and are these truncated notes the best way to give students that context? Here I might do research to find out if these truncated notes provide the value I think they provide.
Next I might ask do these truncated notes provide navigation to the untruncated note? and if so is that the best way to handle that navigation? For example, If they provide navigation to all of the notes for that subject, maybe a link in the card title could serve the same purpose.
If these truncated notes aren’t to be used for studying, they aren’t necessary for context, and they don’t provide navigation that can’t be reproduced, and they don’t otherwise directly serve the main purpose of the card, I would consider removing them from the home screen cards.
All Events / All Notes links
I don’t know the IA of your app so I can’t comment too much on these.
It seems reasonable to include “show all” links if you’re displaying limited information on each card. They don’t directly serve the main purpose of the card, but they’re small elements and probably provide necessary navigation.
I might consider how these links might be incorporated into other elements of the card. For example if All Notes links to all of the notes for this subject, maybe the card title (the subject) could be a link to drill down into the subject’s notes.
The Edit Button
The big red pencil button at the bottom of the screen – I’m not exactly sure what this is for (maybe it will be clear to your users though so take this with a grain of salt).
Given that there’s only one, and it partially covers some of the text on the last card on the screen I assume it’s to edit all of the cards? Maybe to reorganize them?
Anyway, it doesn’t seem to be a child element of a card, so I think it falls outside of the “is this good card design” question.
Please take this with a grain of salt.
You know your app, I don’t. You know your users, I don’t.
There’s nothing overtly wrong with your card design but there might be ways to improve it based on your users needs and expectations. This answer illustrates how I would go about refining the cards if I had that knowlege.
