Context-specific features: Canada.ca design

On this page

• When to use
• What to avoid
• Content and design
• How to implement
• Research and rationale
• Latest changes

When to use

Use feature tiles for promotions that are contextually related to the page.

What to avoid

Don't use this pattern to promote unrelated content or content that doesn’t fit the context of the page.

Don’t use this pattern when it may distract from the task flow.

Content and design

Find content and design specifications and visual examples.

Content specifications

Position context-specific feature tiles after the main content of the page, but before the footer section.

Use a maximum of 3 features on a page.

Always use a heading for this block:

• Multiple features:
  • The default heading is “Features” in English and “En vedette” in French
  • You can use a more specific heading to provide stronger context
• Single feature:
  • You can make the heading invisible so that it feels more integrated with the content
  • If the heading is visible, it’s better to use a more specific heading to provide stronger context
• Include an image, a linked title, and a description in each feature:
  • Keep the title to approximately 40 characters
  • Keep the description text short and concise, ideally 1 or 2 lines, or below 145 characters

Design specifications

• Text uses standard Canada.ca styles:
  • Typography
  • Colours
  • Code the heading as an H2 but style it as an H3
  • Code the linked title as an H5
• Layout for multiple features:
  • Image should appear first, followed by hyperlinked title and then description
  • Image dimensions are 360px x 203px
  • News items is coded as an unstyled list
  • Enclose the feature within a grey container:
    • background colour: #f5f5f5
    • border: 1px solid #e3e3e3
    • border radius: 4px
    • bottom margin: 20px
    • box shadow:
      • blur radius: 1px
      • colour: black with 5% opacity
      • offset x: 0
      • offset y: 1px
      • type: inset
    • minimum height: 20px
    • padding: 19px
• Layout for single features:
  • Place the image on the left, with the hyperlinked title and description to the right of the image
  • Image dimensions are 360px x 203px
  • Apply a 5px grey border to the image
    • background: #eaebed
    • border colour: #eee
    • border radius: 0
    • padding: 5px

Interactions

Hyperlink the entire container of the featured element:

• Image
• Hyperlinked title
• Description

Visual examples

Image description: context-specific features - large screen

A heading titled “Features” is followed by two feature placeholders in a horizontal row. Each has an image placeholder surrounded by a light grey background. Within the image placeholder are the prescribed image dimensions: 360px x 203px. Below each image placeholder on the grey background is a placeholder hyperlink that reads [Feature hyperlink text]. Underneath is the following placeholder text: Brief description of the feature being promoted.

Image description: context-specific features - small screen

A heading titled “Features” is followed by two feature placeholders in a vertical row. Each has an image placeholder surrounded by a light grey background. Within the image placeholder are the prescribed image dimensions: 360px x 203px. Below each image placeholder on the grey background is a placeholder hyperlink that reads [Feature hyperlink text]. Underneath is the following placeholder text: Brief description of the feature being promoted.

How to implement

Find working examples and code for implementing the context-specific features pattern.

GCweb (WET) theme implementation reference

• Context-specific features - GCWeb

Implementations

Determine what best suits the type of page you're creating.

Research and rationale

Consult research findings and policy rationale.

Research findings

Less is more. Research on improving promotions on Canada.ca shows that features are the most effective when they’re relevant to the content on the page. A single feature tile works best, but keep the number to a minimum if you plan to use more than one.

Policy rationale

This is an optional pattern for the following mandatory templates:

• Institutional landing page
• Topic page
• Ministerial pages

Latest changes

2024-04-03

Updated the guidance to include content and design specifications, visual examples and implementation guidance