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Product Update: Improvements to Base Navigation

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Rotimi_Iziduh
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Hi everyone!

I’m Rotimi Iziduh and I’m the product manager working on various Core Surfaces here at Airtable. I’m super excited to share a set of upcoming updates that make the in-base experience easier to navigate, and improve the discoverability of the automations and interfaces features. Specifically, we are introducing a new top navigational structure that contains the below three tabs:

  • Data: This is the default starting point of the old experience. As before, it is where you will review and edit the various tables and views that contain your data
  • Automations: This provides easier access to automations that trigger various actions based on your underlying data
  • Interfaces: This gives quick access to a visual layer to turn your underlying data and automations into apps that are tailored to your unique workflows

To illustrate this, here’s a quick before and after snapshot:

Before:
44aa160a7b3ee7d31903aba031ca4251f6b3f022.png

After:
e75af9dcef447018eb85c8b0806619c698019cdd.png

We’re excited to launch these improvements and please keep an eye out for more exciting updates across your favorite Airtable surfaces!

Thanks,
Rotimi

These updates will be rolled out to 100% by end of day tomorrow. If you aren’t seeing these changes reflected, please try clearing your cache.

59 Comments
ScottWorld
18 - Pluto
18 - Pluto

I agree with this feedback too!

DamonH
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

Yay! I like the new layout. I agree with others above, Table Chooser hamburger that moved to right side as arrow is going to take some getting used to - especially when already going to that zone of the UI for view choosing so often…

STILL NEEDED: Improvements to how the table tabs slide/highlight when selected. I Think there has been some progress here, but not complete. (I always called it Slippery Tabs when I submitted bug reports). Tab highlight not following your view choice/staying on screen/getting half hidden and making impossible to select properties dropdown is a pain when tables/tabs exceeded window width and scrolling or table choosing is required. And if they don’t show up as highlighted, you don’t have any idea what tab you are in unless you remember. Unfortunately that behavior is not resolved but I really hope it gets tweaked now that they have a new shiny UI upon which to refine!

Capture

The image here shows that I have selected a table but it does not show up as a highlighted tab, and I don’t know the name of it. It kind of happens randomly - but I’m sure some reason I could try to figure out based on how far left or right I was in the tab order before starting.

Databaser
12 - Earth
12 - Earth

+1 for this request. It’s annoying.

Stephen_Orr
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

I agree. The vast majority of my users (incl. many base owners) rarely touch automations or even extensions without direct support from my team. At larger companies where most users are not base owners nor power users themselves, placing more advanced functionality front and center will make Airtable look and feel more complicated and induce anxiety.

I think it makes more sense for the automations function entry point to return next to the extensions button, as these are targeting the same type of user. Otherwise, I would update the order of the top buttons to Data, Interfaces, Automations to put less emphasis on automations and more on interfaces which touches more users (hopefully).

ScottWorld
18 - Pluto
18 - Pluto

Agreed with @Stephen_Orr.

Also, a deeper discussion of the new navigation bar here:

Karlstens
11 - Venus
11 - Venus

I too am now feeling this anxiety :joy: I agree, the darker colour needs to end with the base table tabs.

ScottWorld
18 - Pluto
18 - Pluto

Yeah, it’s very disconcerting. Not sure why this was implemented. It makes the entire screen much more cluttered and less usable. @Rotimi_Iziduh, are you still following the feedback in this thread?

Nicolas_d_Apri1
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast
marks
Airtable Employee
Airtable Employee

Hi all - since the new “Manage Fields” tab (aka “Field Manager”) functionality was mentioned in the comments here, I wanted to let the community know that we added Field ID to be accessible from this surface.

You can toggle it on:

toggle

You’ve always been able to retrieve field IDs from your base’s API docs, but this should save you some clicks/browser tabs. :tada:

Kamille_Parks
16 - Uranus
16 - Uranus

@marks thank the lord that’s finally in there. You could get a table, view, and base ID from looking at the URL but non-coders had no easy way to find field IDs. Great addition.