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Module 1 — Claude.ai Interface Essentials

7 min read

Source: Anthropic Academy — Claude 101 (the “Meet Claude” section) + Anthropic tutorial: Navigating the Claude desktop app

Time: Read 3 min | Watch/click-through 15 min | Practice 10 min

Watch / Click-Through First

Two first-party sources cover the Claude.ai interface. Do them in this order:

1. Anthropic Academy — Claude 101, “Meet Claude” section (~15 min)

Direct link: anthropic.skilljar.com/claude-101 — free, no account required to enroll.

What’s in it:

  • What is Claude? — quick framing.
  • Your first conversation with Claude — sending and reading your first prompt.
  • Getting better results — preview of the prompting fundamentals Module 2 goes deeper on.
  • Claude desktop app: Chat, Cowork, Code — the three surfaces Anthropic exposes, and which one you’re using.

You do NOT need to finish the whole Claude 101 course to move on — just the “Meet Claude” section. You’ll come back to finish the rest as you go through this onboarding (Modules 2, 4, 6 each anchor on later Claude 101 sections, and Module 0 recommends finishing the full course alongside this onboarding).

2. Anthropic tutorial: Navigating the Claude desktop app (~5 min read)

Direct link: claude.com/resources/tutorials/navigating-the-claude-desktop-app

What’s in it:

  • Chat / Cowork / Code tabs explained.
  • Sidebar, main area, and prompt-box layout.
  • Model selection (Opus / Sonnet / Haiku) and when to switch.

This is also the source of truth for any future UI change — if this tutorial says something different from Module 1 below, trust the tutorial.

3. (Optional — visual learners) Futurepedia — “Full Claude Tutorial: Beginner to Advanced in 19 Minutes” (YouTube, 258k views)

Direct: youtube.com/watch?v=WSPChlfxJyA

A single 19-minute video that covers the same scope as the Claude 101 “Meet Claude” section plus some of Module 2’s prompting material. Use it if a video-first format helps you learn faster than Skilljar’s interactive course. Complement to Claude 101 on Skilljar rather than a replacement — the Skilljar course is what carries the certificate. Full Futurepedia channel profile in Module 8.

4. (Optional — “which tab do I need?“) RoboNuggets — “Chat vs. Cowork vs. Code: Claude’s 3 Key Modes”

Direct: youtube.com/watch?v=O2C55u3n-mo

Tight 2-minute explainer of the three Claude surfaces (Chat / Cowork / Code) for when the Anthropic tutorial doesn’t click. Useful if you’ve been staring at the tabs wondering which one your task belongs in. Full RoboNuggets channel profile in Module 8.

5. (Optional — settings + Memory walkthrough) Eliot Prince — “First Steps to Using CLAUDE AI (full beginners masterclass)” (YouTube, 46 min)

Direct: youtube.com/watch?v=wLt5COnGpe0

A different teacher’s walkthrough of the same beginner ground, with two specific things this module’s Anthropic-anchored material doesn’t cover visually: (1) the Settings → Privacy → “Help improve Claude” toggle (turn it off on Pro to avoid your work training the model), and (2) Eliot’s voice-record-then-paste pattern for loading Claude’s Memory — record an 11-minute story of your role/context with any voice-recorder, paste the transcript, ask Claude to extract memory entries. The voice-record pattern is the one genuinely portable technique not in Anthropic’s official material. Eliot’s full creator profile lives in Module 8; he’s already cited in the wiki at Five Claude Skills To Build Right Now.

Why It Matters at WEO

The Claude.ai interface is the same product your COO, your marketing manager, and your newest intern will use. Every person on the WEO team is going to spend hundreds of hours in this interface over the next year. Ten minutes upfront to understand its three zones is the single best ROI investment in this whole course.

WEO-Specific Overlay

A few things Anthropic’s material doesn’t cover because they’re specific to how WEO has Claude set up:

Which plan are you on?

Most WEO team members are on the Team plan. When you sign in, your plan shows in the bottom-left corner of the sidebar. On Team plan you have access to:

  • Projects (persistent workspaces — covered in Module 4)
  • File uploads (PDFs, docs, images — Module 4)
  • Higher usage limits than Free

If you see “Free” when you sign in and you’re a full-time WEO employee, flag IT — something’s off.

Getting access

If you don’t have a Claude.ai login yet, request one in the it-requests Slack channel. Include your role and manager. Turnaround is typically same-day. Do NOT create a Free personal account for WEO work — everything needs to go through the Team plan for billing and governance (Module 7).

Default model choice

Three models in the dropdown as of April 2026:

  • Opus 4.7 (launched April 2026) → hard reasoning, complex multi-step writing, strategic documents. Uses adaptive thinking (decides on its own how long to think) — no “thinking budget” slider anymore. Slower than Sonnet but meaningfully better on judgment calls. Use when output quality matters more than speed. See Anthropic’s Working with Claude Opus 4.7 tutorial if you want the full handling guide.
  • Sonnet 4.6 (launched Feb 2026) → your daily driver. Fast enough for conversation, smart enough for 95% of marketing work. Selected by default.
  • Haiku 4.5 (launched Oct 2025) → quick lookups, short edits, high-volume simple tasks. Fastest. Cheapest.

If you’re unsure, leave the default (Sonnet 4.6).

Memory (new in April 2026 — GA for all tiers)

Claude now remembers facts across your chats — what you do, how you like things, who your common clients are — and brings that context into new conversations automatically. Previously this was Projects-only or a Max-plan preview; as of April 2026 it’s GA on Free, Pro, Team, and Enterprise.

Two things to know on day one:

  • You can see what Claude remembers. Click your avatar → Settings → Memory. It’s an editable list. Delete anything that shouldn’t persist.
  • You can turn it off. Same settings pane. Toggle off if you want every chat to start clean.

Memory is covered in more depth in Module 4 alongside Projects and Artifacts — and Module 7 governs what you should NOT let Claude remember about clients.

Key Takeaways

  • Primary source of truth for the interface is Anthropic’s own material — Claude 101 “Meet Claude” section + the Navigating tutorial.
  • WEO runs on the Team plan — you should see “Team” in your plan badge.
  • Current models: Opus 4.7 (best reasoning, adaptive thinking) / Sonnet 4.6 (daily driver, default) / Haiku 4.5 (fastest, cheapest). Don’t overthink it — Sonnet is right ~95% of the time.
  • Memory is on by default as of April 2026. Check Settings → Memory to see what Claude remembers about you, and turn it off if your work requires fresh-context chats.
  • Request Claude access through IT, not a personal signup.

Try It (10 min, hands-on)

Do these in order.

  1. Sign in to claude.ai. Confirm you see “Team” in your plan badge (bottom-left sidebar). If not → it-requests.

  2. Open a new chat and send this exact prompt:

    Write me a 2-sentence intro for a dental practice blog post about why patients should consider dental implants over bridges. The practice is family-friendly and targets patients aged 45–65.

  3. Read the response. Note how Claude took the context (family-friendly, target audience) into account.

  4. Send a follow-up in the same chat without explaining again:

    Make it punchier and mention implants last 25+ years.

    Claude remembers the setup. A chat is a conversation, not a search. Context carries within a chat.

  5. Start a new chat. Ask about the dental-implants thing again. Claude has no memory of your earlier chat. Important mental model.

  6. Complete “Meet Claude” on Claude 101. Takes 15 min. You’ll finish the remaining Claude 101 sections as you work through the rest of this onboarding.

Done? Move on to Module 2.

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