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The busier home screen

More discovery options make the first useful action harder to find. · PM Drills · 06 · 30 sec–2 min

The busier home screen · 30 sec–2 min

Situation

Every team wants a tile on the homepage.

The proposed layout includes recommendations, promotions, recent work, alerts, templates, and announcements. New users hesitate before starting their first task.

Think before scrolling

How would you decide what belongs first?

Choose a user and situation. What behavior should the screen make easier?

How a strong PM thinks

Organize around the user's next decision.

Observe what new users are trying to accomplish and which information helps them act. Distinguish essential setup, useful defaults, and optional discovery.

Test a hierarchy that prioritizes a first successful task while making secondary material available. Compare task success and comprehension, not only clicks on each team's tile. More prominent modules can compete for the same attention.

Takeaway

Screen space is a prioritization decision.

Defend the hierarchy in terms of the user's task and the value of each competing action.