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How to start planning

Atomic gives you a lot of flexibility in how and where you surface cards to your customers. So one of the most important and early decisions you'll need to make is deciding what to build, not just how to build it.

Here's a guide to help you design your in-app experience using Atomic.

Start with the outcome​

Rather than asking "Should this be a card?" – a better question is "What do we need the customer to do"?

This will help you to figure out where in your app and how you want to present messages to your customers.

For the three questions to work through before you build anything, see Start with the outcome.

Presentation in your app​

You'll want to convey different messages, in different places, at different times in your app. Atomic provides "out-of-the-box" display options.

We call these display options containers (aka stream containers). Containers are what enables your messages (aka Action cards or cards) to be displayed in your app. Containers control where cards appear, how many show at once, and how users access them. Containers are set up by your development team (by integrating Atomic SDKs). You then choose which container to send messages to via Action Flows.

Overview of container types​

Atomic provides the following display options:

Vertical​

A vertically scrollable, stacked card feed. Displays one or more cards at once.

Horizontal​

A horizontally scrollable card feed. Displays one or more cards at once.

Single card​

  • Displays one card at a time
  • Can be embedded anywhere in your app, amongst other app content.
  • Auto-sizes and collapses when empty.
  • Full or near-full screen overlay.
  • Displays one card at a time.

Launcher (Web SDK only)​

A collapsible, vertically scrollable, stacked card feed triggered by a button.

Bottom sheet​

A horizontal stream container presented in a bottom sheet that slides up when cards arrive and takes no layout space when empty. For implementation guidance, see Presenting cards in a bottom sheet.

For more detailed information see Stream containers.

Start with these containers​

We recommend you start with these foundational placements, even if you don't send to them straight away:

  1. A multi-card container – to house your general notifications
  2. Single card container/s – embedded into homescreen and/or high use screens
  3. Modal overlay – for critical alerts
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