Designed for Use, 2nd Edition

Teaching people how to user your app

When designers consider the point I just mentioned—make it as obvious as possible for new users how to solve the “problem” that their application is empty—they often come up with something like this:

At first glance, the problem with this approach may not be obvious. This solves the issue, after all. When people open this package tracker for the first time, they immediately know how to fix the empty list.

The problem, though, is that this treats the first run as a special case. The next time the same user opens this app, the list will no longer be empty, and the huge “Add a Parcel!” button will no longer be ...