AVAIL’s completely customizable content management system (CMS) gives architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) technology teams the power to create a visual interface and system of tags and filters that best reflect their firm’s needs and culture. Two key features that help firms achieve this are AVAIL’s Channel Cards and Key Cards, which visually aid users to find the content they need faster in AVAIL’s CMS. Learn more about how to utilize these organizational tools at your firm below.
Jump to
- Your vision, your library
- What are Key Cards and Channel Cards in AVAIL?
- Getting started with Key Cards and Channel Cards
- Free templates: AVAIL’s Key Card library
- Show Your Cards Contest 2025
- Strategize with Customer Success
Your vision, your library
Whether you work for a 500-person or 10-person firm, deciding how to organize digital assets is an important decision for your team. In folders or a less-strategized content management system (CMS), it can take 20 minutes or more for designers and engineers to find the Revit Families they need for a particular project. What’s worse, if they can’t find what they need, they may build a new file from scratch, which could insert costly errors that are felt by the firm in the construction phase.
AVAIL was built to make it as easy as possible for end-users to find what they need. Our tags and filters make content incredibly searchable, and our highly customizable visual interface including Channel Cards and Key Cards—our focus for this blog—makes it easy for end-users to explore within categories of content.
Every firm has its own language and way of thinking and communicating. AVAIL and its Channel Cards system were designed to reflect those unique cultures, allowing BIM management teams to organize the AVAIL system their own way.
What are Key Cards and Channel Cards in AVAIL?
In AVAIL, content like AutoCAD, Sketchup, Rhino, Revit files and more are indexed into Channels. To make these files more searchable in the platform, you can additionally tag the content (usually by category) so that it is easy to filter down as desired. Both a team’s Channels and tags can be customized with 1,920-by-1,080-pixel (16:9) cards that visually aid end-users in the AVAIL platform to find what they need faster.
Channels Cards are the 16:9 cards that can be added to AVAIL Channels.
Key Cards are the 16:9 cards that can be added to AVAIL tags.
Tags in AVAIL, often categories, can be customized with Key Cards to make categories easier to navigate for the end-users.
An extension of your firm’s content management strategy in AVAIL, Channel Cards and Key Cards can keep your AVAIL interface feeling fresh for end-users, promote brand cohesiveness, and increase search performance by reducing noise in AVAIL’s platform.
With Key Cards and Channel Cards to assist in navigating and narrowing down content, very little additional guidance or training is required of the Publishers.
Learn more
Getting started with Key Cards and Channel Cards: how to organize digital assets in AVAIL
As you start to define your organizational strategy including Channel Cards and Key Cards in AVAIL, here are some things to think through:
How to Build
Both Channel Cards and Key Cards are the same size, 1,920 by 1,080 pixels, a 16:9 ratio. They can be built in Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides, Figma, or wherever you are comfortable making graphics. Key Cards can also be easily constructed in the AVAIL Desktop’s Key Card Editor lens.
Helpful Elements to Include
As Channel Cards and Key Cards are simply graphics, what you choose to include on each is up to you! We’ve seen firms include the following elements to great success:
- Firm identifiers: Promote brand cohesiveness by including your logo or brand colors
- Title of Channel or tag
- Popular platform icons such as Revit, AutoCAD, Rhino, and Civil 3D
- Imagery or icons that identify what is in the Channel or tag
- Text descriptions
Customization Strategies to Consider
There’s no one right way to group your Key Cards and Channel Cards, and our customers have really flexed their creativity over the years. Based on customer examples, here are a few reliable ways to think about grouping cards:
Slantis
2023 Show Your Cards Contest winner Slantis assigned different colors to topics like Revit-related, branding-related, and internal documentation so end-users can quickly navigate to the Channels and tags that pertain to their needs in the moment.
SNHA
2023 Show Your Cards Contest winner SNHA assigned colors to topics like Revit, scripting, and Project-specific content. “This allows us to easily identify the type of content we are looking at, and also helps us to keep our content organized and well-structured,” the team said.
Taylor Design
Differentiating Channels by content type, 2024 Most Creative Show Your Cards Winner Taylor Design used recognizable icons like the colored Taylor Design logos to identify files like loadable family content from detail views and sheets. “We appreciate how a well-designed visual touch simplifies navigation and brings a sense of satisfaction to content discovery,” the Taylor Design team said.
Introba
Helping the global firm’s teams find their local files fast, Best Brand Identity 2024 Show Your Cards Winner Introba used country flags to create instantly recognizable Channels that transcend native languages.
IMEG
Using imagery to designate categories in AVAIL through Key Cards is especially effective. IMEG, for example, has utilized a branded template and incorporated graphics matching content type for easy exploring.
Taylor Design
When they were introduced, Key Cards revolutionized content navigation at Taylor Design, the team said. They utilize realistic images to add authenticity and offer an easy way to identify keywords.
Dive more into Key Card strategies:
- How and Why to Use Key Cards
- Show Your Cards Contest 2023 Winners
- Show Your Cards Contest 2024 Winners
Free templates: AVAIL’s Key Card library
Not sure where to start or how to organize your firm’s digital assets? We have free Key Card templates that can help you get started.
In the AVAIL Desktop, go to Marketplace and subscribe to AVAIL | Installers + Publisher Resources for Key Card templates.
Subscribe to AVAIL | Installers + Publisher Resources to access AVAIL’s Key Card and Channel Card templates.
In the AVAIL | Installers + Publisher Resources Channel, you will have access to AVAIL’s Key Card templates.
Download AVAIL for free to get started.
Show Your Cards Contest 2025
From December 12, 2024 to January 8, 2025, AVAIL will host its third annual Show Your Cards Contest, highlighting the most creative and eye-catching AVAIL organizational Key Card and Channel Card strategies.
Contest categories will include Best Brand Identity, Best Visual Navigation, and Most Creative. Winners will be selected this year by an expert panel, and prizes will be awarded to the winner in each category.
All AVAIL customers are encouraged to submit as many entries for each category as they would like. Fill out the submission form below to enter.
Strategize with Customer Success
Still tailoring your strategy to be the best fit for your team? Need someone to bounce ideas off? Connect with our Customer Success team.
About AVAIL
Founded in 2016 as a solution for architecture and engineering firms to find the information they need faster, AVAIL creates software for the global architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. AVAIL’s content management system (CMS) platform and Revit application tools help designers and engineers take control of their intricate network of files in one visual, streamlined solution. AVAIL’s customers include industry leaders Gensler, Perkins&Will, IMEG, LEO A DALY, and Populous.
