Tables
Tables

Core of a business app is a set of tables, the discrete things you’re tracking and there's an order of the columns.

Core of a business app is a set of tables, the discrete things you’re tracking and there's an order of the columns.

If you look closely at most CRMs (Salesforce), Project trackers (Asana), applicant trackers (Greenhouse), or meeting management tools (Fellow) , they basically follow the same database and display patterns of their tables.

Incorporating these best practices in your doc will ensure that users will feel comfortable and use your "app" well.

⁠

Makers often include the following components:

Thing Tracking: The

display column⁠

should be the first (or as close to) column of your table. The Thing you are Tracking is the most important item and what makes the row unique. Examples are Task for a project, Contact name for contact info , or Feature for a product roadmap. It is often a Text column.

Person: Most things tracked will have a person on your team associated with it. Examples are Assignee, Account Manager, or Product Manager. Having it close to the Thing Tracking draws closer association of the responsible party. This is often a

People column⁠

type unless you're tracking by Team.

Date: Start or end (or both). Often a

Date column⁠

type, unless you're tracking by Quarter.

Status: Far right, put at the end because it's the action that the user takes after getting context from the other items in the row. Can be a Select List column, but will scale better (and makes it easier to edit) if it's a

Lookup column⁠

type to another table called Status. You can use the Workflow Status Drag n' Drop Template.

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TablesTables

Tables
Tables