Hey @JGO, for feature requests you’ll want to fill out this Product Idea form!
Great point, I definitely see where you’re coming from. When records have similar or unclear names, the record picker in Interface forms can be tough to work with.
That said, even though the card layout gives a bit more context, it doesn’t really solve the core issue since only the primary field is searchable. So if a user can’t identify the right record from the name alone, they’re stuck scrolling or guessing, which isn’t ideal in more complex bases.
In my experience, a better approach is using dynamic filters on linked record fields. These work well in Interface forms when set at the field level in the base. For example, you can have the user first select a course, and then only show assignments tied to that course. This type of conditional filtering makes the experience much smoother and reduces confusion when dealing with lots of similar records.
Another workaround that helps in the meantime is using a formula as the primary field. You can concatenate key fields like name, ID, date, or status to give more context in a single, searchable line. It’s not perfect, but it does improve the usability of the record picker with the current limitations.
I also want to echo your broader point, Airtable’s core UX still needs more flexibility and customization, especially within Interfaces. While it’s exciting to see new developments in AI, I hope the product team continues to invest in foundational UX improvements as well. There are plenty of cases where the current limitations push users toward custom front-end solutions just to get the design or workflow they need. With a bit more flexibility in the native Interface builder, many of those workarounds wouldn’t be necessary.
I’m also really excited about the new custom Interface extensions currently in alpha, which allow developers to create custom React components inside Interfaces. This has huge potential to solve many of the issues we’re discussing, but only for those with coding skills. For the broader no-code community, the core limitations still remain. It’s a big step forward, but not quite the full solution yet.
Upvoted, and really appreciate you starting this conversation.
Interface forms already allow you to show multiple different fields in the linked record picker (more than just the primary field), but:
- Those extra fields are not searchable, and
- The biggest problem of all is that Airtable typically cuts off the data in those fields so they are not readable.
For now, your best solution for this issue is to use Fillout’s advanced forms for Airtable because:
- It lets you choose an unlimited number of fields for your linked record picker
- It NEVER cuts off any of the data so the fields are always readable, and
- It also lets you choose which field should be the searchable field.
Fillout is 100% free, and it offers hundreds of other features that Airtable’s native forms don’t offer, including the ability to update Airtable records using a form, create custom PDF files from a form submission, accept payments on forms, pre-fetch dynamic data from an Airtable record, display Airtable lookup fields on forms, create new linked records on a form, add a login page to your form, perform math or other live calculations on your forms, collect signatures on a form, create multi-page forms with conditional paths, connect a single form to dozens of external apps simultaneously, add CAPTCHAs to your form, and much more.
I show how to use a few of the advanced features of Fillout on these 2 Airtable podcast episodes:
Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire the best Airtable consultant to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consultant — ScottWorld
