Designing for Enterprise — Better UX for Bulk Upload
You come across many forms while signing up for new services. it's asking you to fill out an entire form (your name, address, email, phone number and so on). What a drag :(
Imagine you are assigned to fill out such a form with up to 20 input fields and that too you need to fill 1000 such forms. how soon will you quit your job?
Bulk upload helps people keeping their jobs. it simplifies this process by enabling the user to upload these 1000 or 2000 or much more forums in one go.
In this article, we will talk about Bulk Upload in enterprise systems, how this works & how to design it better in order to maximise its effectiveness.
How does it work?
A most common method used in bulk upload is upload through Excel / CSV file upload
The system provides the user with a sample Excel / CSV file with each field as header and user need to fill all the details in the corresponding column.
i.e each row represents one entry in the system. As shown in the fig.
Most of the times user does have an existing entry in excel sheets so it becomes really easy. They just need to sequence the data into a system-defined format which can be done by copy-paste or another convenient method.
As most people keep data stored in excel sheets as well as you can export your existing data into excel sheets from most of the systems this becomes very easy.
Boom problem solved everyone lived happily ever after.
there’s always, always and then always going to be a “BUT”
What about Errors in Bulk Upload?
Validations in bulk upload are not easy. for a file with 1000 entries with 20 fields per entry = 20,000 fields that need to be validated.
Some of the most common issues which can result in error are
Empty fields — if some mandatory fields are left empty by the user.
Wrong data — if User writes 9 digits mobile number instead of 10 digits in some columns.
Duplicate data — if there’s some mobile number which already exists in our system and we don’t allow two users with the same phone number.
some entries which already exists in your system
How are you going to handle them?
How to handle error and validations?
It can be solved in many different ways. Let me tell you how do we solve it
So you take all the error and show it to the user.
for example
Out of 245 entries, you have uploaded
200 are successful While
35 are entries are invalid &
10 entries already exist in our system.
Please click here to download the report file.
Now, what the heck is this report file?
Because there can be a 1000 error in the file uploaded by the user you don’t want to fill your dashboard with error list. and depending on how many fields are there for one entry, it can get messy (like an Avacado sucked another older avocado messy).
Also, you want to show user fields which are unsuccessful enabling user to correct those entries and upload again.
Please see image for reference.
Another method if you are greedy about your data
It can be saved as incomplete list or Draft.
In which all valid data can be stored while invalid values can be corrected by the user.
Now it can proceed the as good old form-based process in which most entries are pre-filled.
See not all forums are the same. Some can be gentle, loving and be there to always support you in case you fall 😄
to sum it up
Give your users option to bulk upload if they need to fill a form multiple times.
Support your bulk upload with validation and don’t let error’s go unaddressed
Every system will have different challenges regarding bulk upload so be ready
Love your forums no matter what, they will help you when bulk upload will not
Let me know how often do you come across bulk upload and how do you solve for bulk uploads
If you find this article insightful you can clap up to 50 times (Exactly 50 times is much better), let me know your thoughts in comments down below.
See you in the next one. till then keep creating keep hustling.
