A major new design technique is sweeping through the WordPress community, enabling creators to build sophisticated, interactive profile cards with a stunning visual depth previously requiring extensive coding. The method, revealed in a detailed tutorial by expert Jim Fahad, utilizes the powerful custom CSS capabilities within Elementor Pro to produce a “layered card” effect that dramatically responds to user interaction. This advancement represents a significant leap in accessible web design, allowing for professional-grade animations directly within the popular page builder’s framework.
The core effect transforms a static image card into a dynamic interface element. In its default state, the widget displays only a background image within a styled container. However, when a user hovers their cursor over the element, a multi-layered animation triggers. A series of offset, stacked backgrounds peel into view, creating a pronounced sense of depth and physicality. Simultaneously, textual content such as a name and job title elegantly fades in over the image, completing the transformation from visual teaser to informational showcase.
Fahad’s step-by-step guide begins with constructing a foundational section using a standard column structure within the Elementor editor. Key styling steps include setting a minimum height, applying a dark overall background for contrast, and isolating a single inner column to serve as the card canvas. This inner column is then styled with a white background, substantial padding, a solid white border, and rounded corners to establish the card’s clean, modern base.
Crucially, the background image is applied not to the column directly, but via the Background Overlay feature. This technical choice is pivotal for the later hover effect to function correctly. The content itself is added using the Image Box widget, though its default image is removed, repurposing the widget solely for its robust title and description styling controls. This text is positioned at the bottom of the card and styled with specific typography and color for maximum legibility.
The revolutionary aspect of the tutorial is the integration of custom CSS to generate the hover animation. Fahad provides a complete, pre-written CSS snippet from his resource website, which users can simply copy and paste into the Advanced tab of the inner section housing the card. This code, exclusive to Elementor Pro, manipulates pseudo-elements to generate the multiple, animated layers that appear on hover. The tutorial emphasizes the flexibility of the system, demonstrating how the color of these animated layers can be changed with a single hex code adjustment within the pasted CSS.
A secondary CSS snippet is introduced to refine the user experience further. This code allows the card’s text content to remain hidden until the moment of hover, creating a cleaner initial state and a more dramatic reveal. Implementing this requires applying a simple custom CSS class, “y-content,” to the Image Box widget, linking it to the animation rules. This demonstrates a modular approach where non-coders can achieve complex interactions through manageable, copy-paste components.
The design’s scalability is showcased as Fahad duplicates the completed card to create a full team member section. Each duplicate card can be individually customized—altering the background image, name, and job title—without affecting the core hover functionality. This makes the technique exceptionally efficient for building uniform yet distinct galleries, service listings, or portfolio items.
The tutorial concludes with essential responsive adjustments, ensuring the elegant effect translates flawlessly to tablets and mobile devices. On smaller screens, margin adjustments are made to prevent overlapping and maintain touch-friendly spacing, a critical step for modern web accessibility. The entire process underscores a growing trend in no-code and low-code development: the strategic use of provided custom CSS fields to exponentially expand a platform’s native design potential without leaving its interface.
This development is more than a simple tutorial; it is a benchmark for the evolving capabilities of visual website builders. By democratizing a complex layered animation effect, it empowers a vast ecosystem of freelancers, agency designers, and business owners to implement cutting-edge UI/UX patterns. The technique directly addresses the increasing demand for websites that are not only informative but also engaging and interactive, setting a new standard for what is possible within the WordPress environment using Elementor Pro as a foundational tool.
The release of this method is expected to influence website design trends significantly, with the layered card effect poised to become a common feature on agency portfolios, executive team pages, and product showcases. It highlights the continuous blurring of lines between front-end development and visual design, where sophisticated outcomes are achieved through guided configuration rather than manual coding. As builders like Elementor incorporate more advanced styling hooks, the creative potential for the global WordPress community continues to expand at a rapid pace.