Salesforce Features that you may need to implement in every ORG
- May 23
- 6 min read
Updated: May 27
Making small changes to your Salesforce UI can have a big impact—it’s quick, often free, and easy enough for beginners. A good user experience can make or break how well people use the system. Improving design and navigation helps users work more efficiently and increases adoption. A clean, intuitive interface also makes the platform feel more welcoming, encouraging users to engage with Salesforce.
Salesforce has recognized the importance of user experience by introducing a UX Designer certification to highlight best practices in this area. In this guide, we'll go over some key UI features
Personalizing the Salesforce Login Page
The login page is the first point of interaction users have with Salesforce, making it an excellent place to add branding and customizations. As an admin, you have the choice to leave it as the default login experience or enhance it for a more personalized touch.
With Salesforce Experience Cloud, you can:
Add your company logo for brand consistency.
Customize the background and design to reflect corporate styling.
Include helpful login instructions or messages for users.
Enable Single Sign-On (SSO) for a seamless authentication experience.
A well-customized login page can reinforce branding, create a professional feel, and improve user engagement from the very first interaction.
A better alternative is having your users log in to a page like this example below with MyCompany – giving you more control over the experience before the user logs in.
As you can see, the second login page is more tailored to MyCompany and unique and distinguishable from the generic Salesforce login page. The image should be either JPG, JPEG, GIF (yes, GIF!), or PNG (it cannot exceed 100 KB). In addition to the URL and logo in the right frame, you can also change the background color.
Salesforce Apps
To make Salesforce feel personalized and efficient, it’s best to create dedicated apps for different user groups or teams. A Salesforce app organizes relevant tabs, records, and workflows specific to each department—whether it’s Human Resources, Marketing, Sales, or Customer Support.
Why Customize Salesforce Apps?
Provides role-specific navigation, ensuring users see only relevant tools.
Enhances user adoption by making Salesforce easier and more intuitive.
Allows branding and naming that align with organizational workflows.
How to Create a Salesforce App
Navigate to App Builder in Setup.
Create a new Lightning App tailored to a department or team.
Define the tabs, permissions, and branding that match the users’ needs.
Since businesses evolve, the first version of your app is just the beginning. As workflows and user needs change, continuous refinement ensures a smooth and optimized experience for every team.
In addition to the app itself, you can also cater for your users using Lightning Pages, such as the homepage, which can be assigned to individual apps. Instead of leveraging the per-app assignment, you can go one step further!
For example, if three teams are working on Salesforce, they all need the same basic information on the homepage (Tasks, Events, Recent Items, and Chatter). However, each team has a specific requirement in terms of the metrics they would like to see in a report. For example:
Marketing Team: “I would like to see a report of my campaigns, but I don’t want to see any finance or sales information”.
Sales Team: “I would like to see a report of my leads by status, but I don’t want to see any marketing or finance information”.
Finance Team: “I want to see a pipeline report of all open opportunities, but I don’t want to see any marketing or lead information”.
An unfavorable solution is to create three different pages and assign each one to the specific profile and app, which would be difficult to maintain. Instead of multiple homepages, a more effective approach is to utilize a single, well-designed homepage. This can be achieved by creatively employing components and filters, such as those based on Profile. Feel free to explore and implement other available filter options as necessary:
Create one Lightning homepage, include all the common components, and add a unique Report Chart component for each team.
Next, add a Filter in the “Set Component Visibility” section on the component.
Select “User” > “Profile” > “Name”, and enter the value of the Profile, check that the operator is the one you want (we’ve all been in a situation where we chose the wrong one instead, so best to be sure), then click “Done”.
Repeat for all of the report components that vary by team, and that’s it!
Double Down on Lightning Pages
The Lightning App Builder is a powerful tool that allows users to add, remove, or rearrange components on record pages, creating highly customized and intuitive layouts. With the introduction of Dynamic Forms, the entire experience has evolved—making it crucial to leverage this functionality where available.
Why Dynamic Forms Matter
Allows custom sections with field visibility controlled by criteria (such as values in other fields).
Enables on-the-fly UI adjustments without modifying entire page layouts.
Reduces clutter by displaying only relevant information to users based on their context.
Unlike traditional page layouts, Dynamic Forms provide granular control—something that standard layouts simply cannot achieve unless a field is removed from the layout or restricted via permissions.
Navigation Bar Tabs
As a Lightning Apps administrator, remember that users can personalize their navigation bar tabs. This includes rearranging tabs, adding object tabs, and even incorporating Reports or Dashboards for faster access. If you allow this customization, ensure you inform your users of this capability.
When creating the App, you will be presented with the page for App Options: make sure not to check the box if you want your users to be able to edit the tabs, as this will disable the option.
When the option is available for a given app, users will see the familiar pen icon on the right-hand side of the bar. Clicking this will enable them to start customizing their experience in no time!
Utility Bar
One of the most valuable Lightning App features is the Utility Bar, which provides quick access to essential tools from any page within an application. Whenever I develop a new app, I make sure to consider its implementation because of its ease of use and immediate productivity benefits.
Why Use the Utility Bar?
Available across all pages in the application, ensuring users can access critical tools without navigating away.
Can contain frequently used items, such as Notes, History, Approvals, and even custom components.
Helps streamline workflows by reducing clicks and improving efficiency.
Adding & Customizing Utility Items
The Utility Bar isn’t limited to initial app creation—admins can add or modify items later as needed. Salesforce offers multiple standard components right away, including Salesforce Flows, which can be incredibly useful for automating processes.
Themes and Branding
Salesforce lets you change how everything looks so it matches your company’s style. With Themes and Branding, you can add your logo, pick colors, choose default images, and even make links match your brand color!
To do this, go to: Setup → User Interface → Themes and Branding
You don’t have to use the theme right away. You can preview how it looks on different pages and make changes before showing it to your users.
Even if you’re using a custom theme for the whole system, each Lightning App can still have its own image and color, giving you even more flexibility.
Compact vs. Comfy
Salesforce offers two layout styles called display densities. These help you choose how much space you want between elements on the screen. You can switch between them anytime, based on what feels best for you.
Comfy: This view uses more space. Field labels appear above the fields, and there’s more space between sections. It’s a clean and relaxed layout, perfect if you like things spread out.
Compact: This view is tighter. Labels are placed to the left of the fields, and there’s less spacing between items. It helps you see more information without needing to scroll as much. Once you try Compact, you might never switch back!
Compact Layouts
ompact layouts show the most important details of a record in a small space — perfect for quick views on the Salesforce mobile app or in Lightning Experience. They also appear when you hover over a lookup or master-detail field in Lightning. In short, it’s a great way to give users more info with less clicking!
Keep in mind: You can only set one compact layout per object for all users — unless you're using Record Types. So while it's a fast way to improve visibility, make sure to think about how it might affect your users before making any changes.
Salesforce Celebration
Celebration is a fun feature in Salesforce that shows how much the platform values user experience. It lets admins create small, joyful moments — like raining confetti — to celebrate achievements.
Setting it up is easy!When you create a Path in Salesforce, you can choose when and how often confetti should appear. For example, you might show confetti every time an Opportunity’s stage is set to “Closed Won” — making success feel specia
l!
It’s a simple way to make the interface more engaging and motivate users with a little celebration.
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