How To Quickly Improve Your Power Apps Model-Driven View Look and Feel

One of the most common questions Power Apps developers have when building model-driven applications is, "How can I make them look more appealing?" In this tutorial, Brian Knight from Pragmatic Works demonstrates how to quickly enhance the look and feel of your Power Apps model-driven views with just a few simple steps, all achievable in under 15 minutes.

Enhancing the Visual Appeal of Your Model-Driven Apps

When working with model-driven applications, the default views can often appear plain and lack visual engagement. However, by making a few adjustments, you can significantly improve the user interface, making it both more functional and visually appealing.

Step 1: Customize Choice Columns with Colors

The first enhancement involves adding color to your choice columns, which helps to visually distinguish different statuses or categories:

• Navigate to your solution in Power Apps and select the choice column you want to edit.
• Edit the choice list and assign light pastel colors to each choice. Avoid using dark or bold colors to ensure readability.
• Save your changes to apply the colors to your app.

Step 2: Edit the View to Add Visual Components

Next, you'll edit the view itself to incorporate new visual components, such as grids and child tables:

• Open the desired view from your list of views.
• Select Components from the top menu, then click Add a New Component.
• Choose the Power Apps Grid Control from the available components. This allows for enhanced grid functionality, including editing, filtering, sorting, and grouping data.
• Enable additional features like multi-select, cascading relationships, and option set colors to further enhance the user experience.

Step 3: Publish and Review Your Changes

Once you've made your adjustments, it's time to save and publish your changes to see the impact:

• Save and publish the updated view.
• Perform a hard refresh (Ctrl + F5) to load the changes.
• Review the updated view to ensure the color coding, editing options, and embedded child tables are functioning as expected.

Final Thoughts

In just a few minutes, you can transform the look and feel of your Power Apps model-driven views, making them more user-friendly and visually engaging. These simple enhancements can have a big impact on how users interact with your application, making it easier to navigate and use.

Don't forget to check out the Pragmatic Works' on-demand learning platform for more insightful content and training sessions on Power Apps and other Microsoft applications. Be sure to subscribe to the Pragmatic Works YouTube channel to stay up-to-date on the latest tips and tricks.