Most Home Assistant dashboards become difficult to use for the same reason: they turn into inventories of entities instead of interfaces for making quick decisions. A usable dashboard should answer four questions quickly: what is happening, what can I adjust, what deliberate action can I run, and what needs attention now?
For many household dashboards, four built-in cards cover those jobs well: Tile for everyday device control, Entities for compact groups, Button for explicit commands, and Conditional for information that matters only in specific situations. They are not objectively the best cards for every installation, but they are a strong, low-maintenance starting set that works without custom cards.
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What makes a Home Assistant dashboard usable?
A usable dashboard is not the one with the most information. It is the one that helps a household member understand the current state and take the right action without knowing entity IDs, integrations, or Home Assistant terminology.
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Evaluate each card by asking:
- Can the current state be understood at a glance?
- Is the primary action obvious?
- Does the card expose only useful detail?
- Will it remain practical on both a phone and a wall-mounted display?
- Are important controls protected from accidental activation?
- Does irrelevant information stay out of the way?
It also helps to distinguish four jobs:
- Status: information designed for quick scanning.
- Control: adjustment of a device or setting.
- Action: a deliberate command such as running a script.
- Context: information shown only when a relevant condition exists.
The four cards below map neatly to those jobs. Home Assistant documents its built-in card categories, actions, features, visibility options, and layouts in the official dashboard card documentation.
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1. Tile card: the everyday default
Use a Tile card when one entity deserves a clear, recognizable place on the dashboard and the user may need one or two quick controls.
Tile is a good default for lights, covers, climate entities, persons, vacuums, fans, and similar devices. It combines the entity’s current state with optional features, tap actions, and access to more detail.
Basic Tile example
type: tile
entity: light.living_room
name: Living room
icon: mdi:sofa
features:
- type: light-brightnessUse one Tile for a frequently used device or room-level control. Give it a human-readable name and select features based on actual household behavior rather than enabling every available option.
Useful variations
type: tile
entity: climate.downstairs
name: Downstairs
features:
- type: climate-hvac-modes
- type: target-temperaturetype: tile
entity: person.alex
show_entity_picture: truetype: tile
entity: vacuum.downstairs
features:
- type: vacuum-commands
commands:
- start_pause
- return_homeFeature availability depends on the entity’s capabilities and the integration supplying it. If a feature does not appear, the entity may not expose the required capability; it is not necessarily a dashboard configuration error.
Tile design rules
- Use
hide_stateonly when the state is redundant or confusing. - Use
state_contentwhen the default state does not tell the user enough. - Use
vertical: truewhen a narrow phone layout or wall panel benefits from a taller, easier-to-tap card. - Use color sparingly. If every card is brightly colored, an important warning no longer stands out.
- Keep the number of features small enough that the card remains readable.
Tile’s main weakness is density: one entity per card can make a dashboard large. It is also not the best interface for a long list of related entities or a high-consequence, multi-step action.
Tile versus Entities
Choose Tile when a device is important enough to deserve visual prominence and the user needs quick adjustment. Choose Entities when several related entities need to be checked together in a compact list.
2. Entities card: the compact control panel
The Entities card is useful when information density matters more than visual prominence. It can display several entities together and supports special rows such as sections, buttons, attributes, dividers, and links.
Good uses include room lights, doors and windows, security sensors, battery levels, HVAC-related entities, a leaving-the-house checklist, and a maintenance view.
Basic grouped list
type: entities
title: Downstairs lights
entities:
- light.living_room
- light.kitchen
- light.hallwayCustom names and related checks
type: entities
title: Entry check
show_header_toggle: false
entities:
- entity: lock.front_door
name: Front door
- entity: binary_sensor.front_door
name: Door
- entity: binary_sensor.garage_door
name: Garage
- entity: sensor.front_door_battery
name: Lock batteryHuman-readable labels matter. Integration-generated names and raw entity IDs may be technically accurate but are poor household interface text.
Sections inside an Entities card
type: entities
title: Home status
entities:
- type: section
label: Entry
- binary_sensor.front_door
- lock.front_door
- type: section
label: Safety
- binary_sensor.smoke_alarm
- binary_sensor.water_leakInternal sections are useful when related items need organization without becoming several large cards. Stop adding entities when the list becomes a dumping ground. A long list makes important controls harder to find and forces users to interpret mixed entity types.
Protect consequential controls
Locks, garage doors, scripts, and similar controls deserve more deliberate interaction than ordinary lights. Where the row type and installed Home Assistant version support it, add confirmation:
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type: entities
entities:
- entity: lock.front_door
name: Front door
confirmation:
text: Lock the front door?Entity-row options vary by row type and Home Assistant release, so verify the supported behavior in the current Entities documentation. Do not assume every row supports every action option.
3. Button card: make deliberate actions obvious
Use the Button card when the user is choosing a named command rather than inspecting or adjusting an entity’s current state.
Good examples include “Good night,” “All lights off,” “Open gate,” “Start cleaning,” “Run ventilation boost,” navigation to a security view, or a script that performs several steps.
Script button
type: button
name: Good night
icon: mdi:weather-night
tap_action:
action: call-service
service: script.good_nightHome Assistant action syntax can change between releases. Check the official action documentation for the syntax accepted by the version you run rather than treating one form as timeless.
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Navigation and URL buttons
type: button
name: Security
icon: mdi:shield-home
tap_action:
action: navigate
navigation_path: /lovelace/securitytype: button
name: Cameras
icon: mdi:cctv
tap_action:
action: url
url_path: /local/cameras.htmlName buttons as verbs or familiar household commands. “Good night” communicates more than an internal script name such as script.good_night. Choose an icon that reinforces the action, and add confirmation where a mistake could have meaningful consequences.
A Button is not simply a prettier Tile. A Tile answers, “What is the current state, and can I adjust it?” A Button answers, “Run this named action.” Using a Button for an ordinary light can hide the light’s current state and make the interface less clear.
Buttons also have limitations. They may not show whether an action completed successfully, and a script may be unavailable while its button remains visible. If feedback matters, provide a nearby status card or expose a script or scene entity when the user should be able to inspect its state.
4. Conditional card: show what matters now
The Conditional card displays another card only when one or more conditions are met. This makes it a usability feature, not merely a logic feature: the normal dashboard stays calm while exceptions become prominent.
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Show an open-door warning
type: conditional
conditions:
- entity: binary_sensor.front_door
state: "on"
card:
type: tile
entity: binary_sensor.front_door
name: Front door is open
icon: mdi:door-open
color: redUse multiple conditions
type: conditional
conditions:
- entity: input_boolean.guest_mode
state: "on"
- entity: person.guest
state: home
card:
type: button
name: Guest lights
icon: mdi:account-group
tap_action:
action: call-service
service: script.guest_lightsWhen multiple conditions are configured, all must be satisfied. Conditional cards are best for secondary or exception-oriented information, not for the only way to reach an essential control.
Conditional-card risks
- A hidden control can look broken if the user does not know why it disappeared.
- Cards may move when sensor states change, which can be distracting.
- An unavailable or unreliable sensor can produce confusing behavior.
- Several conditional cards can make the layout difficult to predict.
For a simple visibility rule, the card’s built-in Visibility settings may be enough. Use a Conditional card when the condition is part of a larger composition or when it needs to contain another card. Note that the official dashboard documentation identifies limitations for visibility editing inside nested Vertical Stack, Horizontal Stack, and Grid cards.
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Card choice is only part of the design. Group cards by user intent, put frequent actions first, and move diagnostic information to a separate view.
A practical structure is:
- Immediate status: presence, weather, doors, and important alerts.
- Frequent controls: commonly adjusted lights, climate, covers, or media.
- Household actions: scripts, scenes, routines, and navigation buttons.
- Exceptions: open doors, low batteries, active alarms, or completed tasks.
- Maintenance: dense Entities cards for batteries, unavailable devices, and diagnostic entities.
In a Sections view, the pattern might look like this:
type: sections
max_columns: 3
sections:
- type: grid
cards:
- type: tile
entity: person.alex
- type: tile
entity: binary_sensor.front_door
- type: conditional
conditions:
- entity: binary_sensor.front_door
state: "on"
card:
type: tile
entity: binary_sensor.front_door
name: Front door open
- type: grid
cards:
- type: tile
entity: light.living_room
- type: tile
entity: climate.downstairs
- type: button
name: Good night
icon: mdi:weather-night
tap_action:
action: call-service
service: script.good_night
- type: grid
cards:
- type: entities
title: Entry check
entities:
- lock.front_door
- binary_sensor.garage_doorThis is a pattern, not guaranteed drop-in YAML. Replace entity IDs and service names with those in your installation, and check the action syntax and available features for your Home Assistant release.
Sections views arrange cards in a grid and support card resizing. The official view documentation also covers Masonry, Panel, and Sidebar layouts. A Grid card groups cards for layout; it is not a substitute for choosing the right card for the task.
In Sections views, resizing is handled through the Layout tab. Layout editing is limited for cards nested inside Vertical Stack, Horizontal Stack, or Grid cards, and is unavailable for Picture Elements cards. Plan your nesting before building a deeply layered dashboard.
Adding one of these cards through the UI
- Open Settings → Dashboards.
- Select the dashboard.
- Select the target view.
- Select the edit button.
- In a Sections layout, choose the add-card control inside the relevant section. In other layouts, choose Add card.
- Add a card by entity or browse by card type.
- Configure its actions, visibility, and—where supported—layout sizing.
- Save the card.
When editing a default dashboard for the first time, Home Assistant may ask you to Take control. According to the official Tile and Button documentation, taking control means that dashboard will no longer automatically receive new dashboard elements. You can create a new default dashboard, but that specific dashboard cannot be returned to automatic updating. If you want to preserve the automatically generated dashboard, create a separate dashboard before taking control.
When a different card is better
| Need | Best first choice | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| See and adjust one device | Tile | Combines state with optional quick features. |
| Display several related entities | Entities | Compact, dense, and groupable. |
| Run a known routine or script | Button | Communicates an explicit action. |
| Show information only when relevant | Conditional | Reduces persistent clutter. |
| Arrange cards | Sections, Grid, or Stacks | These are layout tools, not control-card replacements. |
| Show historical data | History Graph or Statistics Graph | Purpose-built for trends. |
| Control a thermostat | Tile or Thermostat | Tile is compact; Thermostat is more dedicated. |
| Show cameras or visual scenes | Picture or camera-oriented cards | Image-first interfaces work better. |
A dedicated thermostat, graph, media, camera, or custom card can be more appropriate when the task requires specialized controls. Custom cards are not inherently less usable; they simply add installation, compatibility, and maintenance considerations. Start with built-in cards, then add an external dependency only for a specific requirement.
A simple decision rule
- If the user needs to see and adjust one device, start with Tile.
- If the user needs to inspect several related entities, use Entities.
- If the user needs to run a named routine, use Button.
- If the information matters only during an exception, use Conditional.
Keep essential controls permanently discoverable, give every card one clear job, and treat the maintenance view separately from the household’s main dashboard. That approach usually produces a faster, calmer interface than adding a card for every entity.
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