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2 min read#features#design#conversion

The featured link: one card that does the work

A page where everything is emphasised is a page where nothing is. The featured switch only works while it is rare.

What the switch does

Turn on «Featured» in a link block and the row becomes a card: full width, the card image on top, the label and note below it. In grid templates it takes both columns. The visual weight is several times that of a plain row, which is exactly why it is a switch and not a default.

The best card image is the thing itself — the record cover, the dish, the book, the room — not a logo and not a screenshot of a website. A card is a window; a logo in a window tells the visitor nothing they did not already know from your name at the top.

  1. Pick the one action you want most this month. Not this year: this month.
  2. Feature it, give it a real photograph, and put it first.
  3. Leave everything else as plain rows, in order of how much you care.
  4. When the month changes, move the switch. The old card becomes a row and keeps its place in the list.

What to pair it with

  • A badge, when there is a fact worth three words: «New», «Two dates left», «−20%». A badge that is always there stops being read.
  • A note, when the label alone raises a question: a price, a time, a city.
  • A short path, when the same thing is printed or said out loud somewhere.
  • Nothing else. A featured card with a badge, a note, an image and a counter is a poster, and posters do not convert on phones.

When a featured card is the wrong tool

When there is no photograph. The card renders a gradient instead, which is honest but weak; a plain row with a good label beats a card with nothing in it. When the destination is a list rather than a thing — «all my links», «my website» — a card promises a specific place and delivers a directory.

And when the page is already short. On a page of three links, emphasis is noise: the visitor sees all three in one glance, and the card only takes the space that made them easy to compare.

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