New to Claude? · Optional
Interface Tour
A quick, visual orientation to the Claude.ai screen, what each part does, and where your work lives.
Most software makes you learn it before it earns its keep. Claude.ai does the opposite: there is no dashboard to master and no settings to wade through, so the CIM on your desk can be a structured summary within minutes of your first login. This page gives you a fast orientation so the screen feels familiar the moment you open it.
The illustrations below recreate the real interface. Your own screen may differ in small ways as Claude updates, but the parts that matter stay in the same place.
The home screen
When you sign in you land on a new chat. A slim menu sits on the left, and the message box sits in the middle. That is the whole app.
Good evening
Bring a document or ask a question to begin.
The left menu is how you move around:
- New chat starts a fresh conversation. Each chat is separate, so use a new one for each task.
- Chats lists your recent conversations so you can return to anything.
- Projects are dedicated workspaces that hold instructions and a set of files. This is where most serious deal work belongs, covered in the Projects section.
- Artifacts collects the standalone documents Claude builds for you, such as a memo or a model output.
The message box, up close
Almost everything happens in the message box. You type a request, attach files, and press send. The controls are worth knowing by name.
- The plus button opens the attach menu. This is where you add a PDF, Word document, or Excel file, or pull a file from a connected source such as Google Drive.
- The attach menu lists where files can come from. Uploading from your computer is the everyday route.
- The model selector shows which Claude model is answering and how hard it is thinking. The default is the right choice for almost all PE work.
- The send arrow submits your message. You can also press Enter.
A conversation
Once you send, the chat fills in. Your messages sit on the right; Claude’s replies run full width on the left. Everything you say stays in view, so each new message can build on the last.
Summarize this CIM for an initial screen: business, financials, and the three biggest risks.
Business. B2B field-service software for mid-market contractors, sold on recurring subscriptions.
Financials. Roughly $60m revenue, mid-20s percent growth, gross margin in the high 70s.
Three risks. Customer concentration, founder dependence, and thin disclosure on churn.
To keep going, you simply type again: “Put the financials in a table,” or “What should I ask management first?” There is no need to re-attach the file or repeat yourself.
Where deal work lives: Projects
For anything beyond a quick question, you will work inside a Project. A Project pairs a set of standing instructions with a knowledge base of files, so Claude already knows the context every time you open it.
Instructions
You are assisting a private equity team screening Project Atlas, a field-service software target. Be precise, cite the source document for figures, and flag anything the materials leave unclear.
Project knowledge
Projects are the heart of using Claude well, and they are how you keep each deal’s data separate. The whole Projects section walks through setting them up.
What to take from this
The interface is small on purpose: a menu on the left, a message box in the middle, and Projects for anything that deserves its own workspace. With the layout familiar, head to Anatomy of a Good Prompt for the technique behind briefing Claude properly. To see the whole interface put to work on one live target, the Project Atlas walkthrough follows a single deal end to end.