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New Role: Interface Designer - No Base Access - Can Edit Interfaces

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Joseph_Roza
8 - Airtable Astronomer
8 - Airtable Astronomer
Status: New Ideas

What is your idea?
Create a new role for users with interface-only access called Designer or something. These users could edit interface pages, show/hide fields, and even edit fields as necessary. They wouldn't be able to access the database or automations, or even add pages, but could modify existing pages as necessary.


What Problem would it Solve?

  • Users would be able to change values of some fields that they otherwise wouldn't be able to: single select, multiple select, etc. which can be helpful for users who accidentally create a value in these fields which are mispelled or have the wrong color etc.
  • Users would be able to make minor cosmetic changes and move fields around as necessary. 
  • Less time would be taken from developers for making modest changes and fixing simple mistakes

Who would benefit?
I think this would give some users a sense of control over their apps, so they're not entirely locked to users with editor/creator access. Especially for more minor issues - like fixing incorrect single select fields - having to wait for a user who is a creator to fix those fields or update colors might be considered a minor annoyance for users. It would also appeal to users who consider themselves more designers than database engineers and give them an intro into airtable app development. It would also save time for base creators who may be managing multiple apps so they don't have to focus on more minor things that are easily fixable.

 

2 Comments
kuovonne
18 - Pluto
18 - Pluto

This is an interesting concept. However, I would like to add a bit of caution. Often the values for single select choices are hardcoded into formula fields, and changing the spelling of the select choice can break the formula.

Joseph_Roza
8 - Airtable Astronomer
8 - Airtable Astronomer

That's an absolutely fair point. I think there would be a lot of potential complexities of adding a role like this, like can they create fields - especially formula fields - and can these users create pages? I think limiting them to only being able to edit already existing pages would prevent a number of potential issues, but also maybe not being able to change fields which have dependencies in formulas or which might break automations as a failsafe? There's already a warning that shows up any time you edit a field which has other dependencies, so maybe work off that?

I'm not quite sure of all the details, but you're right in that there are definitely some hurdles to overcome. I just think giving some users the ability to even change interface colors, icons, and the like might be a big step in giving users a sense of personalization.