Best Practices for Providing Actions in Data Tables

When working with data tables in digital applications, it is essential to provide users with clear and efficient methods for performing actions on data.

Users can perform two types of actions in data tables: editing a single row or applying changes to multiple rows at once. Poorly designed action layouts can lead to confusion, wasted time, or serious mistakes like accidental deletions.

In this article, we will learn the best practices for designing data table actions.

• Row-level actions: Applied to an individual row.
• Bulk actions: Applied to multiple selected rows.

We will discuss real-world examples and design best practices to help you make smart UX decisions.

Row-Level Actions (Applied to a Single Row)

These actions are used when a user needs to perform an action on a single item in the table. For example, editing a record, deleting an entry, or viewing a detail screen for a specific item. The key challenge here is to expose the most important actions without cluttering the table.

Below are a few methods to provide row-level actions in data tables.

1. Action Icons on the Right Side