10 Design Tips for a Better Data Table Interface

Best practices to improve your tables

UX Movement
5 min readApr 6, 2023

Most data tables are hard to decipher and dreadful to view. Spending hours looking at tables can feel like a burdensome chore. You can take the burden off users by putting more effort into the interface design. All it takes is following a few best design practices.

As a result, you’ll turn your ordinary table into an extraordinary one that’s a pleasure to view. Your data will appear more lucid, allowing users to take action on them more easily.

Here are ten simple ideas to improve the user experience of your data tables today.

1. Turn gray nav bars into tab views.

A navigation bar doesn’t have to look like a bar. You can use tab views for a more minimalist look. Your table will have less visual clutter that won’t distract users from the data.

2. Turn quantity indicators into numeric markers.

Instead of using “(number)” to quantify the contents in each tab, you can use numeric markers. They’ll make the labels look less busy and the numbers more apparent.

3. Turn bulk action links into bordered buttons.

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UX Movement
UX Movement

Written by UX Movement

There’s a good and bad way to design user interfaces. Our publication shows you which way gives the best user experience. https://uxmovement.substack.com

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