5 Airtable Tips For UX Design Teams

As designers, content strategists, and thinkers with our minds wrapped up in complex UX projects daily, our team has fully embraced Airtable and found several handy uses for it in our project workflow.

UX design teams

Airtable

Airtable is a tool that enables one to filter, sort, organize, and transform content and information. It’s similar to a spreadsheet, but with the added powers of a database and much better UX. Data in an Airtable base can be organized relationally, allowing for unlimited views and uses.

Advantage

• One of my favorite Airtable tips is to find ways to use a Kanban board. With easily-moveable cards,
• You can create digestible data on the surface with the ability to click on cards to dive into the finer details.
• There are a ton of uses for a Kanban board: you can assign tasks to collaborators, sort items by priority,
• And generally make any kind of data organized, flexible, and good-looking for internal and external use.
• Here’s how to set up a basic Kanban board.

Develop airtable surveys to gauge success

• The survey function in Airtable is a great way to gauge satisfaction, garner feedback, and collect important contact information.
• Our team recently used Airtable survey forms to create a survey to better understand.
• The friction in design-to-developer handoffs now that we’re working in a completely remote environment.

Templates to enhance uniformity and efficiency

• Opening up Airtable for the first time was a little overwhelming for me since it looks suspiciously like Excel or Google Sheets.
• But the capabilities are much more dynamic. Having templates in place helped me start to navigate the platform.
• Setting up a template can also provide a great resource for teams, and it’s something that Thinkers are doing across practice areas to share knowledge and increase efficiency.

• If you’re just getting started in Airtable or testing out new ways of using the tool, templates can help
• Airtable templates are pre-filled with a structure and sample content, and there are many use cases to choose from like an employee directory,
• Social media calendar, or nonprofit gala planner. They’re a great place to start and can be modified to meet your specific needs.

Internal data collection

In a recent team meeting, our content strategists shared the Airtable template they were working on for user interview data collection.

Design systems organization

Our design team set up a base to audit and organize each asset of a design system. We can also implement linked record fields and assign tags to move through the board quickly.

Team deliverables libraries

• Our team also created a deliverables library template, which is a resource for anyone looking for examples to reference when starting a new project.

Flexibility and don’t be afraid to change course

• Our tools are constantly evolving, and so should we. Don’t limit yourself if you’re stuck in a template that doesn’t make sense for a project.
• When we found our client a little lost, a team member suggested we implement a Kanban card view as the first tab within.
• The table so that when clients opened the base, they had clear instructions for how to use the tool.
• Setting up an onboarding atmosphere by creatively adapting a Kanban view helped clear up confusion quickly.

Lean on airtable community when you’re stuck

• One substantial positive about using Airtable is the community and wealth of information.
• If I ever find myself stuck, I know I can go to their Airtable community and develop a solution.
• You can use your industry peers and teammates as a resource, too. We have a few Airtable superfans on our team.
• Who are always willing to help with the ins and outs if we find ourselves stuck, and their guidance saves us a lot of time and frustration.

Conclusion

There are many uses for Airtable you’re looking to synthesize user interviews, create content, manage and audit your design system, and many more for different aspects of your professional and personal life.