User flows are the other side of admin controls—the surfaces people encounter when they're being invited, sharing something, or hitting a wall. Across 70 user-facing instances from 10 systems, the data shows strong consensus on invite mechanics but wide divergence on what happens when access fails. 5 of 10 systems have no request-access flow at all. If you don't have access, you're stuck.
Invite Flows
Instances: 39 of 152 (25.7%)
Present in: All 10 systems
The invite flow is the most common permission surface—more than double any other. It spans the admin sending the invite, the email the invitee receives, and the acceptance experience.
The Invite Modal
Every system uses a modal or popover for the invite action. The core components are consistent: email input, role selector, and a send CTA.
Notion's invite modal—role selector defaults to Workspace owner, with an optional message field and 'Send invite' CTA
Role selection at invite time: 7 of 10 systems let the inviter choose a role during the invite. The exceptions are Slack (all invites join as Member), Dropbox (defaults to "Can edit"), and Trello (defaults to Member with no selector).
Optional message field: 4 of 10 systems include a message field in the invite modal: Notion, Dropbox, Asana, and Trello. The rest send a system-generated email with no personal note.
The Invite Email
The email is where the invitee first encounters the permission. One pattern dominates: personal framing with the inviter's name.
Notion's invite email—personal subject line ('Jan Haaland is ready to work with you'), workspace preview with sidebar navigation, and a single 'Accept invite' CTA
Consensus CTA: "Accept invite" or similar acceptance verb. The email CTA is always about the invitee accepting—never about signing up or creating an account first.
Personal vs system framing:
Personal (majority) — "[Name] invited you to [workspace]" — emphasizes the human relationship
System — "You've been added to [workspace]" — emphasizes the outcome
Invite Link Sharing
3 of 10 systems offer invite links as an alternative to email: Trello, Figma, and Slack. These let anyone with the link join without a direct invitation.
Trello shows this most prominently—"Invite with link" appears as a secondary option alongside the email invite, with the collaborator limit ("1/10") visible.
The invite flow accounts for 25.7% of all permission instances—more than double any other surface. Yet the actual invite UX is remarkably consistent across systems. The differentiation happens in what surrounds it: role selection, message fields, and link sharing.
Share Dialogs
Instances: 10 of 152 (6.6%)
Present in: 6 of 10 systems (Notion, Figma, Airtable, Asana, Dropbox, Trello)
Share dialogs appear at the resource level—sharing a specific page, file, project, or folder. Unlike the workspace invite flow, share dialogs operate on individual resources and often include visibility controls.
The Core Pattern
A popover or modal with three elements: email input for direct sharing, a member list showing current access, and a visibility selector.
Notion's share popover—email input, current access list, and 'General access' visibility selector all in one compact view
CTA verb split: "Invite" (3 of 6: Notion, Figma, Asana) vs "Share" (2 of 6: Dropbox, Trello). Airtable uses "Copy link" as its primary action.
Visibility Tiers
5 of 6 systems with share dialogs offer tiered visibility. The most common model is three tiers:
Tier
Notion
Figma
Dropbox
Restricted
Only people invited
Only people invited to this file
Only you
Organization
Everyone at [workspace]
Anyone at [org] with the link
Team members
Public
Anyone on the web with link
Anyone with the link
Anyone with link
Notion's 3-tier visibility model—the default is always the most restrictive option ('Only people invited')
Every system defaults to the most restrictive tier. No system defaults to public or org-wide access.
Link Sharing Controls
Dropbox has the most sophisticated link sharing: separate URLs for editing vs viewing, with expiration dates, passwords, and download restrictions per link.
Most systems (4 of 6) offer a simple "Copy link" as a secondary action alongside email sharing. The link inherits the current visibility setting.
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Locked sections:
Whether your share dialog should say 'Invite' or 'Share'—and how 6 systems handle visibility tiers from private to public
What to show on your 403 page—why 4 systems offer recovery paths and 3 leave users at a dead end
When to show 404 instead of 403—GitHub's security pattern and when it makes sense for your product
How to design request-access flows that actually work—the requester and approver sides across 5 systems
Why account switching belongs on every access-denied page—the quiet pattern that prevents unnecessary escalation
