Claude.ai: Interface, Projects and Artifacts
You navigate Claude.ai and use Projects to organize context and Artifacts to structure output.
Why this lesson matters
You know the theory of good prompting. Now it's time to put it into practice with a specific tool: Claude.ai.
Claude is the AI assistant made by Anthropic. The web interface gives you more than a chat window: with Projects and Artifacts you can organise your work, reuse it and make it more professional. In this lesson you get to know the interface and start using it well right away.
The Claude.ai interface
When you log in to claude.ai you see a clean interface:
- Chat window: this is where you hold your conversations. Each conversation is a separate chat with its own context.
- Left sidebar: your conversation history, grouped by time. You can rename and delete conversations.
- Model selector: at the top you choose which Claude model you use (Opus, Sonnet, Haiku). Each model has its own strengths.
- Attachments: you can upload files (PDF, Word, Excel, images) straight into the chat window.
| Model | Strength | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus | Deepest reasoning, most accurate | Complex analyses, strategic work |
| Claude Sonnet | Best balance of speed and quality | Daily use, writing tasks |
| Claude Haiku | Fastest, cheapest | Simple questions, quick tasks |
Start with Sonnet for daily work. Switch to Opus when you notice the answer lacks depth, or when you're working on complex analyses where accuracy matters.
Projects: organising your work
Projects are workspaces inside Claude. Instead of loose conversations that vanish into your history, you group related conversations under one project.
What is a Project?
- A collection of conversations around one theme or task
- With its own project instructions (custom instructions that apply to every conversation in that project)
- With its own Knowledge Base (files the AI can consult)
Examples of good projects:
- "Q4 Reporting", every conversation about your quarterly figures
- "Customer Service Templates", prompts and templates for customer service
- "Market Research", analyses and summaries of research reports
- "Recruitment", job descriptions, interview questions, assessment criteria
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Project instructions work like a system prompt that's always on. You don't have to explain who you are and what you want in every conversation. Set it once on the project and it applies to every conversation inside it.
Artifacts: when they appear and what you do with them
Artifacts are standalone pieces of content that Claude shows next to the chat window. They appear automatically when Claude generates a substantial piece of content.
When does an Artifact appear?
- For longer texts (reports, memos, emails)
- For code or scripts
- For tables and structured data
- For diagrams or visualisations
What can you do with Artifacts?
- Copy: straight to your clipboard
- Edit: make changes directly in the artifact
- Download: save it as a file
- View versions: compare earlier versions after you've had it revised
Artifacts are ideal for iterative work. Ask Claude to write a report, look at it in the artifact panel, give feedback, and watch the new version appear next to the conversation. No scrolling through the whole conversation.
Knowledge Base: uploading your own documents
Every project has a Knowledge Base where you can upload files that Claude uses as context.
What can you upload?
- PDF documents
- Word files
- Text files
- Spreadsheets
- Presentations
Why is this useful?
Instead of copying information into every prompt, you upload your documents once. Claude then has them available in every conversation within that project.
Example:
You create a project "Financial Reporting" and upload:
- Last year's annual report
- This year's budget
- Last month's monthly report
Now you can ask questions like:
Compare the Q3 results with the budget and give me an analysis of the biggest variances.Claude has the data right there.
Be aware: the Knowledge Base has a limit on the amount of text it can process. Upload only relevant documents, and leave your entire company archive out of it. Focus on the documents you actually need in that project.
Organising projects: best practices
- 1One project per workflow, don't cram everything into one project
- 2Descriptive names, "Q4 2024 Reporting" instead of "Project 1"
- 3Set project instructions, who you are, which tone, which format you expect
- 4Keep the Knowledge Base current, remove outdated documents
- 5Archive finished projects, keep your workspace tidy
Quiz
What is the advantage of working with Projects in Claude?
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