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Karuha
Karuha

Posted on Originally published at nameplate.cc

Write the contact fields before you open a card builder

#beginners #career #productivity #webdev

A digital business card is a page, a link or QR code that opens it, and a contact file the other person can save. Building the page takes a few minutes. The part that fails is quieter: they tap save, the contact is missing the email, or the name is split in the wrong place, and the conversation is over.

I work on Nameplate, a personal site builder. The longer version of this is how to create a digital business card that people actually save. This note is the part I would do before opening any builder.

Write the contact fields down first

The page can hold a bio, photos and a row of links. The saved contact is a vCard, a short plain-text file. For most people the useful set is:

  • Name, written the way it should be filed
  • A title or one-line headline
  • One email you actually answer
  • A phone number, only if people should call or text
  • The page address
  • A city, only if location matters to the work

Fewer fields is better. A QR code that contains the whole contact gets denser with every extra line, and a denser code fails more often when you print it.

Point the code at the page

Share the link in a message, a social bio, or an email signature. For the QR code, point it at the page address. A code that points at a page stays small, and it stays right when the email changes next year. A code that holds the whole vCard has to be reprinted for that change.

A file a phone can save looks like this:

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
N:Lee;Jordan;;;
FN:Jordan Lee
TITLE:Independent designer
EMAIL:jordan@example.com
URL:https://example.com/jordan
END:VCARD
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That is the whole file. The person receiving it does not install an app.

On Nameplate the saved file is generated from the profile name, headline, contact email, location and the page address. A phone number, if you want one in the contact, has to be written on the page itself. The file only exists once the page is published.

Test the saved contact, not the preview

On a real phone, before you hand the card to anyone:

  1. Open the link and tap the save-contact action.
  2. Open the new entry in Contacts and check each field. A name split in the wrong place is the usual surprise.
  3. Send the link to someone on the other platform, iPhone to Android or the reverse.
  4. If you will print the code, scan a printed proof at arm's length in ordinary room light.

Contacts that people have already saved do not update themselves. Editing the page fixes the next scan, not the old entry.

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