Understand seat and role types

Seats and roles in Abstract are used to set user permissions and access to the projects in each organization. Users are assigned a seat and a role by the organization admin. A user can have either a viewer or a contributor seat, which is combined with an admin, member, or guest role. 

Seats do not transfer across organizations and are tied to the paying organization, not the user’s account. If you want to add a contributor seat to another organization, this requires a separate charge on the respective account.

Seats

Two seat types are available for each user invited to an organization with Abstract: viewer and contributor.

Viewers

Viewer seats are free and unlimited for organizations.

Each viewer in a project can view and comment on branches, collections, and artboards that are shared via desktop or web. They can also export project files.

 

Contributors

Contributor seats are priced per person. Pricing per contributor depends on the subscription.

Contributors in organizations can edit projects, which includes creating branches, editing files, making commits, merging branches, and more.

Roles

Roles are used to determine the level of access each user seat has to the organization’s projects. Three types of roles are available to assign to each viewer or contributor that is part of an organization. One type of role can be assigned per seat. 

Administrators

Administrators are responsible for managing the Abstract account for an organization. They manage approval for new contributor seats, billing, integrations, organization details, and other organization-level settings.

You can assign an administrator role to any viewer or a contributor seat in the organization. This person automatically gets access to all public projects in the organization.

Administrator viewers often represent an organization as a member of management, finance, or IT. They help ensure your organization can smoothly update billing details or manage employee access at no additional cost.

Administrator contributors are able to manage the account and work on projects alongside the team. They are most often department heads or team managers that run a design team.

Members

Members are typically company employees who have access to team projects within an organization.

A member role can be assigned  to any viewer or a contributor seat.

Member viewers are great for teams that collaborate across departments. Typically, member viewers who join an organization are from engineering, product, support, or marketing teams where stakeholders may need access to view design work.

Member contributors have access to all public projects within an organization and are able to edit and manage design work. Typically, these people are on the design team.

Guests

Users that are assigned a guest role do not automatically have access to all projects within an organization and must be invited to specific organization projects or private projects.

Guest roles are available with Pro and Enterprise plans.

A guest can be assigned  a viewer or a contributor seat.

Guest viewers are great for organizations that need to provide design visibility to stakeholders outside their company. Most often, guest viewers are clients with access to a project where they can view the team’s work.

Guest contributors are able to access work in specific projects they’ve been invited to. Typically, guest contributors are contractors or clients who collaborate, contribute to, and review design work.

See also: Manage user permissions and access or Add or remove contributor seats