New Biometric Research Reveals the Perfect Business Card Design

Four in ten UK adults (40%) have had their perception of a business or company negatively impacted by the quality and/or design of a business card alone, new research reveals.

The study, undertaken by online printing specialists, instantprint, spoke to over 2,000 people, proving just how impactful a bad design can be; sparking further investigation into what we consider to be a good design.

Following the initial nationwide poll, instantprint conducted in-depth biometric analysis with seven business card variations across ten industries (70 cards in total). Users had their eyes tracked (heatmapping and pupil dilation) and heart rates monitored as they looked over each business card; revealing what grabbed their attention first, what got their heart rates going, and which designs interested them the most overall.

So, what makes the perfect business card design?

1. Colour: Yellow and white are the most appealing colours for the background of a business card, according to the biometric analysis. Strong primary blues and green were also popular accent colour option across the board.

2. Text: All copy should be easy-to-read and evenly spaced, with black or white text colour most appealing. Classic fonts were consistently more popular than modern typefaces.

3. Logo: Users showed a preference for simple and representative logos that took up no more than 25% of the total business card space.

Overall, the findings outlined a tendency towards simplicity over more unique and statement designs.

This was again reinforced in instantprint’s poll, with traditional card layouts with logos/fonts/colours that accurately represent a business’ services favoured by nearly half (45%) of all respondents, and one in three (31%) saying a no-frills design with only essential information was always their preference.

Jon Constantine-Smith, Head of instantprint, commented on the findings:

“It is fascinating to see just how much impact the design of a business card can have on the perception of a business, but also how opinions do vary between industries, generations and genders.

“Driving new customers can be challenging for any business, so turning someone off when you hand a card over is of course something to avoid!

“When it comes to the design of your business stationery, it can be tricky to get it right, but considering your audience, and following the advice laid out by this research – keeping it simple and representative of your services – is a great starting point.

”Whilst it can be a challenge to find the inspiration on how to create the perfect business card for your line of work, there are tools, templates and even video guides that can help, especially if you want to make the best first impression.”