Action Overflow VS. Command Menus for primary and secondary actions on a datatable

Question

I'm currently researching what are the best practices for handling a lot of actions on a data table.

The two that I'm familiar with are grouping actions together in a command menu, using the action overflow menu, or using a combination of both. Are there any best practices out of these three options that someone could recommend?

I'm torn between the use of an ellipsis (...) or the use of "More" with a caret for the action overflow menu. Any suggestions regarding that would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

I am currently working on the UI for a platform with multiple data in a table and a large number of actions.

We have approached the problem in multiple ways:

1) Allow advanced users to use a context menu. This is a right click on the item they want to perform the actions on and they see a small menu with the available actions.

Examples (screenshots from other products that use the same logic): Source: Alma

Source: Microsoft OneDrive

2) Offer an ellipsis menu (as you mention) in each row that shows the same actions.

Examples:

Source: Nextcloud

Source: Google Drive

3) Offer multiple select with checkboxes for each row and then have the most frequent actions visible to the users. This works particularly well in actions that can be perform on multiple items.

Examples: Source: Amazon Drive

Source: Gmail

All three are viable ways to provide multiple actions on each/multiple rows. You could use all three or the one that best fits your product and your users. Follow up with user testing to ensure that you get the results you are hoping for.