The biggest complaint I received during beta, was about the homepage layout when you first login. It looks like this:
I have to admit it looked wrong and ugly, being so empty. So, for the final release, I created a small example image of how the homepage will look with data and added a highlighted note on creating new records. Of course after you insert some data the image goes away. I think 37 Signals were the first to do this, but I’m not sure.
Here is how the empty homepage looks now:
Moreover all new users now have a default task (to Configure their settings), so the task list is not empty.
Overall I think that’s much better!
This is called the blank state. 37 Signals wrote an article about it: http://www.37signals.com/svn/archives/000375.php
Comment by John Topley — January 25, 2006 @ 19:11
I remembered seeing that in Basecamp but I wasn’t sure they had invented it.
Comment by Dimitris Giannitsaros — January 25, 2006 @ 19:50
“Blank slate” is a dashboard, and has been around for years. I love when companies replace an old name with a new one and then claim to have invented the concept.
Comment by Mike — January 25, 2006 @ 20:49
I don’t think 37 Signals have ever claimed to have invented the concept (I don’t see how you can invent it), they just wrote an article about it!
Comment by John Topley — January 25, 2006 @ 22:43
They didn’t invent the “blank state”, they invented (described) a solution for it.
Comment by Dimitris Giannitsaros — January 25, 2006 @ 22:52