Product Suggestion: Please stop showing new View Sidebar

[ScottWorld]

Starting yesterday, Airtable rolled out a new sidebar in the left margin to display the views in our base.

This is fine, but please stop auto-opening this sidebar by default.

Every time we refresh our web browser or enter a base, this view sidebar auto-opens.

It takes up a significant amount of screen real estate, and it is a real pain to continually be closing this new sidebar. Every time we enter a base, we have to close the view sidebar again.

The vast majority of people aren’t continually switching views constantly throughout the day. For this to be ever-present and taking up a significant amount of screen real estate is not helpful.

This should stay closed by default.

p.s. The old view switcher was not difficult to find or use.

[ScottWorld]

Britt_Myers:

Take me out of this ridiculous experiment.

Their AB testing metrics will show my engagement is the same, but cannot show how every time I type command-shift-K, I now think about how much I dislike Airtable.

Be sure to email that to them, so they know how you’re feeling. (Personally, I agree with your sentiments.)

[Britt_Myers]

Yes I did… just repeating it here as I can’t presume one hand talks to the other (in regards to the sentiment)

Another bad aspect of this from a UX perspective is the inconsistency of the presence of the views panel. Previously it only appeared when it was called on, so it was there for a specific action, then closed.

Now, it’s maybe there, maybe not there.

As I’m working, if it’s there, I stop paying attention to it. It’s eating up my screen real estate and I don’t really need it, and that sucks, but I gotta get work done. But when I do need it, I enter the keyboard shortcut to quickly search and find a view, without using the mouse. But I’ve forgotten the view panel is fixed there, so command-shift-K now closes the view list. I then continue instinctively typing the next view I want to see following the key command, but now I’m typing into a cell and overwriting my data instead of typing into the search bar. There is now no way to quickly search for a view without having to take a second to see if the view panel is there. If the view panel is there, I have to type command-shift-K twice to enter the view search (crazy). If the view panel is not there, I have to type command-shift-K once. It is a major disruption to the workflow, and frankly really terrible design principles.

It’s amazing how a year of using Airtable every day, and all of my positive feelings about the service and the brand, can be so completely undone by this boneheaded move. Even as an AB test, it’s just a terrible solution to whatever problem they are trying to solve - whether it shows better metrics for them or not. It’s bad product management run amok.

[chrisdancy]

I can’t live without this new bar.

Talk about extra clicks, using it the old way was a nightmare.

[Olpy_Acaflo]

I’ll quote myself here to save you from having to click and crop the result in your viewport if it wasn’t precise enough because it’s short and doesn’t contain any widget:

Airtable VIEW's UI is slowly improving, and in the right direction!

And me, what did I see so “extraordinary” in this modification of the IU which is not at all unanimous?
Just a first modification of UI which would be the first step towards the addition of VIEWs Grouping and/or Sorting.
Am I just a dreamer ? Well we’ll see…

The best FIX for everyone who spoke out against this UI seems to me:

ScottWorld:

If they decide on keeping the sidebar implementation (and now I really hope they don’t keep it), then the design decision that makes sense would be for the sidebar to SLIDE OVER the existing interface, and then immediately slide away when we switch views. That makes sense.

[Lairic_LLC]

I like the new bar and think that layout is great because I have a TON of views BUT, having it open by default makes the new layout not worth it. In my case I would much rather not have the new layout then have to constantly be closing it.

Any word on when this will be updated to be closed by default (or a setting) or where we can opt out of beta?

[111141]

+1! It’s annoying having to close it every time.

i guess keeping it open makes us get used to new option. but this is really really annoying

Please make it closed by default!!!

[Paul_Warren]

I think the new sidebar is awesome! I do switch between views constantly when troubleshooting and this is a big help. I agree it should remember you’ve closed it if you choose to, but I can imagine leaving it open for an hour or more at a time while hoping through views.

I admit, I have multiple screens. They aren’t huge, but definitely larger than a typical laptop.

[Stacy_Carlson]

+1 Came here for this. Let me toggle this on/off so that I can toggle it OFF.

[Laura_Nash]

In a productivity app it’s so annoying for it to constantly shift back and forth, and have to close it every time. It feels so much slower.

[Eli_Hodapp]

This is truly awful, please revert this change… Or, better yet, maintain two versions: A stable branch that companies who depend on Airtable can use every day and some kind of experimental version people can opt into to noodle around with whatever features you’re developing.