Introducing User Attributes: Describe and Organize Your Learners

User attributes let you describe who your learners are — their role, organization, tier, cohort, or any classification that matters to your business — using labels that only admins can see. Add attributes to one or many learners from the Users table, see them at a glance, and filter your Analytics dashboards by them.

Applies to:

• Plan: Grow, Expand, Plus
• Role: Site Owner, Site Admin
• Platform: Web

What's New

• Describe learners with structured Category: Value labels (for example, Role: Designer, Tier: Gold, Region: EMEA) — or add a simple tag with no category.
• Assign or remove attributes for many learners at once from the Users table, or edit a single learner from their profile page.
• See each learner's attributes in a new Attributes column on the Users table and on their user page.
• Filter Thinkific Analytics dashboards by User Category, and report on attributes in Advanced Analytics. Coming soon!
• Keep learner information private: attributes are never shown to learners and cannot be edited by them.

How User Attributes Work

An attribute is a pairing of a category and a value. 

• Categories are the type of information you want to track (such as Role or Tier)
• Values are the options within that category (such as Designer or Gold)
• Tags are values without a category

You create categories and values as you go, directly from the Users table — there is no separate setup page and no limit on how many you can create. A learner can hold several values in the same category, so a learner can be both Role: Designer and Role: Team Lead. If you just want a quick label without a category, choose No category and the value is saved as a tag.

Attributes are separate from the custom fields on your sign-up page. Custom fields are filled in and seen by learners; attributes are managed by admins and stay private to your team. Adding attributes never removes existing ones — the only way to remove a value is to explicitly remove it.

How to Assign User Attributes

Assign user attributes to one or many learners from the Users table to label them with a category and value (for example, Tier: Gold). If a customer already has the selected attribute (the tag or the category:value pairing), no changes occur.

How to Assign Attributes to Multiple Learners

1. From the Admin Dashboard, select Users
2. Select All Users
3. Check the box beside each learner you want to update, or use the header checkbox to select everyone on the page
4. Click on the ellipses (three dots) In the toolbar that appears
5. Select Manage attributes
6. Under Assign Attributes, choose a Category from the list, select No category for a plain tag, or type a new category name to create one
7. Choose a corresponding Value from the list, or type a new value to create it
8. Select the + button to stage the attribute. Repeat steps 5–7 to add more
9. Select Save.

How to Assign Attributes to a Single Learner

1. From the Admin Dashboard, select Users
2. Select All Users
3. Find the user you want to add the attribute to
4. On the Details tab, find the Attributes section
5. Select Manage attributes
6. Under Assign Attributes, choose a Category from the list, select No category for a plain tag, or type a new category name to create one
7. Choose a corresponding Value from the list, or type a new value to create it
8. Select the + button to stage the attribute. Repeat steps 5–7 to add more
9. Select Save.

How to View User Attributes

You can see the user attributes in the Users Table or the the inidividual user pages.

If you do not see the Attributes column in the Users Table, ensure that the column is shown by following these steps: Show Columns.

How to Unassign User Attributes

Unassign user attributes from one or more learners from the Users table. The selected attribute is removed from every selected learner who has it. Selected learners who don't have the attribute are unaffected.

How to Remove Attributes from Multiple Learners

1. From the Admin Dashboard, select Users
2. Select All Users
3. Check the box beside each learner you want to update, or use the header checkbox to select everyone on the page
4. Click on the ellipses (three dots) In the toolbar that appears
5. Select Manage attributes
6. Under Unassign Attributes, choose the Category: Value pair or tags (values without category) to remove
7. Select Save

How to Remove Attributes from a Single Learner

1. From the Admin Dashboard, select Users
2. Select All Users
3. Find the user you want to add the attribute to
4. On the Details tab, find the Attributes section
5. Select Manage attributes
6. Under Unassign Attributes, choose the Category: Value pair or tags (values without category) to remove
7. Select Save.

Important Considerations

• Adding an attribute does not replace an existing one. A learner can hold multiple values in the same category. To change a value, add the new one and remove the old one.
• Removing a value from learners does not delete the category or value itself; it remains available to assign later.
• There is no limit to the number of categories or values you can create, and no limit to how many learners you can select.
• Attributes do not affect what a learner can access. Use groups, enrollments, or product access rules to control access; use attributes to describe and report on learners.
• At the moment, filtering the Users table by attribute is not available.
• At the moment, filtering Thinkifc Analyrics dashboards, including the the Advanced Analytics, by the attributes is not available.
• Attributes cannot be set during a user import. Import first, then select the imported learners on the Users table and assign attributes in bulk.
• Applying an attribute to a very large selection may take a moment; keep the window open until the confirmation appears.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Articles

• Learn more: User Table: User Report and Filters
• Related: Import Users in Bulk using Smart Importer
• Related: Thinkific Analytics
• Alternative: Create Custom Fields