Overview

Cardstack projects come in many sizes, shapes, and colors! However, the ecosystem itself is made to support some specific design goals:

1. Card variance - Much like how you might pick a playing card up off a table and hold it closer to see more details, Cards have both a detailed (isolated) and summary (embedded) view. Tying these viewing modes together visually helps new users navigate an app.
2. Card motion - Animation is an important communication channel. Cards can have motion, such as when you move from a summary to a detailed view, or submit a Card to someone else for review.
3. Four edges - Data belongs to a Card. Wherever the Card is rendered, it comes with its data and its own information hierarchy. It also comes with tools that help edit the content.
4. Theming - Cards are extensible. A well-written and designed Card can be dropped into any new environment and still do its job well.

Cards have two modes:

A card can be at rest — as something that records some truth, which you can collect, like an article.

A card can be in motion — when you’re submitting an article for a competition, requesting someone to invite you to his organization, or signing a transaction, for example.

The idea of messages and forms, requests and approvals, is a very interesting aspect of cards. Because cards are composed from the bottom up, they can exist in what looks like a website; you double-click on the card and it opens up. But they can also get attached like files in email streams. Let’s say you create a job application form. You can go back and forth via messaging as long as you want, to get the form right; and all that time, you’re actually version-controlling it. This idea that cards can participate in an organizational workflow is extremely important.