The full application

When creating web applications designers usually consider what the screen will look like when it is full of data, not empty.  For example, look at the following screen with a list of real estate properties that have been added.

The screen in the application mockup looks pretty straight forward.  You can add new properties, and edit the properties you have already added.

The empty application

However, as a designer you must also consider what the screen is going to look like the first time it is used.  It won’t be full of data, and if you don’t think about this in advanced all they will see is:

That is the very first impression they will have with your application, it’s important it is a pleasant experience.  Consider offering some guidance on how to get started, or a video they can watch where they can learn a little bit about the process or learn some tricks they might not necessarily learn when just diving in.


Here we can offer a quick introduction and they can play the video.  Pretty simple to add, and you can have it hide automatically after they have added their first property.