Introducing Interface Designer 🎉

[Jordan_Scott1]

We are excited to announce that as of today, the Interface Designer beta is open to everyone, which means you will now be able to create interfaces right from your bases, no code required.

What is Interface Designer exactly? Interface Designer lets you build visual and interactive interfaces using your base’s underlying data. By creating custom interfaces for your stakeholders, you can isolate the information that’s critical to them and none of the other details. This makes it tremendously easy to understand the status of a project and what’s required from whom. Jump right in or keep reading for a comprehensive round-up of everything you’ll need to get started, plus information about a few other features you’ll start seeing after today :tada:

Before we go into more details, make sure to mark your calendars for the next Airtable Community AMA on December 1, with Product Manager JB Bakst, where we’ll dive into all things Interface Designer.

Common Questions

What are some of the common use cases for interfaces?

Interfaces can be used for just about anything, but some of the popular use cases we’ve seen so far include dashboards to view aggregated information & metrics, summaries to view key information about a project, record summaries for research insights, and record triage for things like customer feedback or campaign asset reviews - we can’t wait to see what you come up with next!

What permissions are required to create an interface?

Creator and owner permissions on the base you’d like to build an interface for.

If I share an Interface with another individual or team, can they see the underlying data?

For now, interface access requires you to have base access. So yes, anyone you share an interface with will have access to the underlying data.

When should I use Interface Designer vs. Page Designer (or another feature?)

Some key distinctions that Interface Designer offers:

• Dynamic & interactive
• Can share data from multiple tables within a base side by side
• Easy to onboard collaborators without needed to teach them how to use the Base or fear that they may edit the wrong thing
• Filter records based on the collaborator viewing the interface

Page Designer is ideal for instances where you need to provide a non-editable view of static information during a specific moment in time. One example is if you need to deliver a presentation or want to create a PDF.

Resources to help you get the most out of Interface Designer:

Guides:

• Your guide to designing an interface
• Simplify collaboration with the record review interface
• Highlight key details with the record summary interface
• When to use Interface Designer and other Airtable collaboration features
• Report on metrics with the dashboard interface

Support Articles:

• Creating interfaces in Interface Designer
• Managing and navigating interfaces
• Choosing a layout for your interface
• Adding and formatting elements in interfaces
• Configuring elements in interfaces
• Editing, previewing, publishing, and sharing interfaces

Videos:

• How to create an interface
• Explore Interface Designer layouts
• Empower your team with Interface Designer
• Tool Tips: Youtube series video on Interface designer
• Table Talk: Youtube Livestream on Interface Designer

Want more great news? We didn’t stop there, take a look at all the other fun features you can expect to see starting today as well.

Enhanced features for admins:

You’ll notice a slick redesign of the Admin Panel, created to be more user-friendly. Next, we’ve added significant new security controls—like Audit Log APIs and workspace share restrictions. And finally, we’ve improved base performance across the board, making your largest bases more responsive than ever before.

Additional power for your workflows:

And finally, we’re proud to share new integrations to help you bring more data into Airtable, and improvements to automations.

We’ve updated our automations interface to make it even more intuitive, with easy-to-read modals. Now it’s easier to set up a new automation with a fancy full-screen mode, and a handy guide that will walk you through every step of the process. We’re also starting to beta test conditional logic, which allows users to trigger automations only when certain conditions are met.

And last but not least, we’re adding new integrations for external source syncs from our partners at Zendesk, Github issues, and Google Drive—available to all customers on Enterprise plans.

[Databaser]

Jordan_Scott1:

correct, we’re entering beta for adding branching logic to an automation’s actions :heart_eyes:

WHAAAAAT :exploding_head: :heart_eyes: :star_struck: I’m DM-ing for beta!

[kuovonne]

Karlstens:

this “Record List” element isn’t displaying as something that I can insert into a blank template?

Per this (and several other) support pages …

The only way to add the Record List element is by selecting the “Record review” layout when initially creating an interface. You can add the Record Picker element at any time from the “All Elements” menu.

[Jordan_Scott1]

@Karlstens LOVE seeing what you’re working on :heart_eyes: I’ve got some serious plant envy. Right now, you can access elements like Record list from the layout that is built to support that workflow. As we continue to build this feature, we’ll provide more flexibility in how you can set up your interfaces to make sure you can build exactly what you need! Thank you for sharing that this would be useful for you!

[Jordan_Scott1]

@BobBannanas thank you for sharing that this experience could be improved, we will pass it along to the team! Ideally, that is as seamless of an experience as possible. :slightly_smiling_face:

[Jordan_Scott1]

Please send me a DM with your full name, company name, job title, and email address and I can get this taken care of :slightly_smiling_face:

[Jordan_Scott1]

Welcome to the community @Jason_Curtis_Droboth - We are so glad that you’re here and thanks for your patience in getting you an answer.

• essentially, you have table A with all the schedule-able records, with a start and end date field, and table B with a multiple linked record field that links to table A
• a record list on table B should allow you to select a record on table B, and pass the records in the linked record field to the timeline (these are records of table A)
• the date options for the timeline should now reflect fields that can be picked on table A , not table B, which may be where the confusion is coming from - because it’s linked to table A, it uses table A’s date fields

I hope this helps :slightly_smiling_face:

[Jordan_Scott1]

Thank you for sharing this @Esabatad_Daeh - this is definitely on the team’s radar and I will make sure this feedback gets passed along!

[Jordan_Scott1]

Thank you for sharing, I have passed this feedback along to the team!

[Jordan_Scott1]

Bill.French:

Another aspect of agility is the reusability of interfaces that users create. I assume an interface is bound to a specific base - i.e., the base it was created it. Are such interfaces portable to other bases? Or, are they bound to the data? Slightly relevant…

Thanks so much for your thoughtful responses @Bill.French - Interfaces are tied to bases, but have shared this feedback with the team!

[Jordan_Scott1]

Thank you for sharing this @Olpy_Acaflo - your interfaces look awesome! To clarify, we will not restrict use of any interface you build, regardless of your Airtable plan. You will be able to view, edit, and use any interface you create during the beta period, even once we move into GA. You should feel free to create and use interfaces without concern that those interfaces be subject to clawbacks or restrictions.