Design approvals
Use design approvals for stronger quality control on your team.
With the designer (needs approval) role and design approvals, you and your team can reduce the risk of unapproved changes going live to the site by controlling who can merge page branches to the main site. Junior designers can build independently on page branches, then request design approval from senior designers before merging their branch — allowing for more independent design time and more regulated main site edits.
Designer (needs approval) role workflows
As someone with the designer (needs approval) role, you can only make edits in page branches and will have to get approval before merging your branch into the main site. Additionally, those with the designer (needs approval) role can only publish to branch staging — not to full-site staging or production.
How to branch a page
To create a page branch from an existing page, go to the page you’d like to branch on the site, then click the Viewing dropdown in the top toolbar and choose Create a page branch. You can also branch a page from the Pages panel.
Once your page is branched, you can edit as normal.
How to request design approval for your branch
Once you’ve completed your branch’s design, you can request design approval from a Designer or Site admin:
- Click Request review in the top toolbar
- Add the names of people you’d like to review
- Add an optional message
- Click Send request
Note that you won’t be able to add additional reviewers once your request is sent. You’ll have to cancel and resend the request.
You can continue making edits and changes to your branch after sending an approval request — the approver(s) will see any new changes made after the request was sent.
Additionally, your branch is auto-published to branch staging when your request a design approval.
How to cancel a design approval request
To cancel a design approval request, click the Pending approval status in the top toolbar and choose Cancel review request.
How to check the status of your branch
Your branch’s design approval status is available in the top toolbar. When a branch is pending approval by your teammates, the approval status reads Pending approval. When a branch has been approved, the approval status reads Approved. You can also check the branch's design approval status in the Pages panel.
If you change the design after it is approved, you’ll have to send another approval request before merging your branch.
How to merge your branch
Once your branch is reviewed and approved, you can merge your branch to the main site.
Approver workflows
If you’re a site manager, designer, or limited designer, you can be an approver for design approvals. As an approver, you can add teammates with the designer (needs approval) role to your site and provide design approvals for branched pages.
Design approvals are also useful for tracking the approval process. You can see which branches have been reviewed or approved and merge branches to the main site.
How to add teammates with the designer (needs approval) role to your site
Teammates with the designer (needs approval) role can only make edit in page branches and will have to get approval before merging their branch into the main site. Additionally, teammates with the designer (needs approval) role can only publish to branch staging — not to full-site staging or production.
You can add teammates with the designer (needs approval) role to your site by going to Site settings > Site access > Site access and click Add people. Choose the teammate to add from the Team dropdown and set their site role as “Designer (needs approval).” Note that teammates must already be in your Workspace to add them to a site.
How to review a branch
When a teammate with the designer (needs approval) role requests a review for their branch, an email will be sent to the email associated with your Webflow account. To review a branch, open the email and click Open branch.
You can view a list of changes on the branch by using the Site Activity log. To do so, go to the Site Activity log and click the Filter dropdown. Under Location, check “Only changes made on current branch.”
Once you have reviewed the branch and want to approve it, you can click the Pending approval status in the top toolbar and click Approve.
How to merge a branch for approvers
Once a branch is approved, you can wait for your teammate with the designer (needs approval) role to merge it to the main site or merge it yourself.
Roles and permissions for design approvals
Teammates with the site manager, designer, or limited designer roles can:
- Request reviews
- Approve and cancel reviews
- Merge branches
Teammates with the designer (needs approval) role can:
- Request reviews
- Merge branches (their own or another teammate’s branch) with approval
- Cancel their own review requests
Teammates with the content editor or marketer role can:
- Request reviews
- Cancel their own review requests
Teammates with the reviewer role can:
- Approve reviews