settings per user per location

Question

I'm looking for an interface that will do the following task. I have a table with a list of locations and settings for each location by user.

So, if I pick a user "John Doe", I'm presented with the following grid:

Location | Add | Read | Delete | Receive notifications

New York   [ ]   [x]     [ ]            [x]
Seattle    [x]   [ ]     [ ]            [ ]  
.......

This works great, but I have to pick each user separately. And number of users can be >100. Is there a way to add users to this table so I can configure all users at once without selecting each user separately? What UX designs/principles can be used?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Try using a grid with select all/none checkbox controls at the column level.

If I understand the question correctly, you are doing a bulk add (or edit) of user permissions.

If you separate the columns visually, so it's clear that each header has its own checkbox master control, you can see unselected, all, and semi states in the table headers next to each label.

I've made this example in a dialog, but since you could have 100+ users added at a time, you could just as well make this a full page.

Answer 2

If you look at the items in your list, the users, and their settings, read add etc., you’ll see a lot of repetition. If you try to remove the repetition, you’ll naturally find solutions.

Usually things like your permissions settings are not random. They have common groups of settings where most users have the same group. Usually they end up like the example data below sort of following a bell curve. If you sort the data by popularity you usually get a few big groups of settings.

If the data is like this, you could have the UI set the "User Type" instead of setting individual checkboxes. The default for a new user be Type A which means zero clicks for all type A additions. Type B and C only take one click, the user hits B and all the checkboxes are changed by the app. The user can also click on checkboxes to do custom settings.