All categories/Product and design
Interaction and UX · Level Advanced · Design Permissions Design
Permissions: who sees what
Different roles need different menus.
Prompt
Ask what the user is doing and what they fear, then decide what goes on screen. Visual tricks do not fix structural problems.
Task: Different roles need different menus.
[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
- roles and duties
- data sensitivity
- current implementation
- how often roles change
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.
[Go through each of these]
- three tiers per role: view, edit, delete
- least privilege by default
- hide inaccessible entries but explain why
- feedback when permissions change
[Process]
1. State the single job of this screen
2. Answer the user's current worry first
3. Order by information priority and delete
4. Design empty, loading and error states
5. Give a minimal usability test
[Output]
One job, priority, three states, test plan.
[Do not]
- Never two primary actions on one screen
- Do not test with lorem ipsum
- Never ignore the empty state
- Never use colour as the only signalWhat to state before it starts
Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.
- roles and duties
- data sensitivity
- current implementation
- how often roles change
Go through each of these
Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.
- three tiers per role: view, edit, delete
- least privilege by default
- hide inaccessible entries but explain why
- feedback when permissions change