When you first get access to a ServiceNow instance, it can feel like a blank canvas. Your first job as an administrator is to make it feel like your organization's workspace. This starts with branding. A custom logo, color scheme, and title not only look professional but also provide a clear visual cue to users that they're in the right place, especially in organizations with multiple instances for development, testing, and production.

Most of your initial branding changes happen in the system properties. You can find these settings by navigating to System Properties > Basic Configuration U16. This page gives you centralized control over the browser tab title, the page header caption, and the primary and secondary colors of your theme. It's a quick way to apply a coat of paint and make the instance immediately recognizable.

ServiceNow offers two primary user interfaces: UI16 and the more recent Next Experience UI, also known as Polaris. UI16 is the classic interface that many long-time users are familiar with. It features the Application Navigator on the left-hand side and the content frame on the right. The Next Experience UI is a modernized, unified interface designed to improve workflow with a new landing page, configurable workspaces, and a sleeker design.

As an administrator, you can enable or disable the Next Experience UI for your instance under System Properties > All Properties. Search for the property glide.ui.polaris.experience and set it to true or false. Individual users can also often switch between interfaces via their user preferences, depending on how the system is configured.

The Application Navigator is your map to the entire instance. It lists all available applications and their corresponding modules, such as forms, lists, and reports. You can quickly filter through this list by typing part of an application or module name in the filter text box. This is the fastest way to get where you need to go.

To streamline your own workflow, make heavy use of Favorites. You can click the star icon next to any module to add it to your Favorites list at the top of the Application Navigator. This is essential for quickly accessing the pages you use most often, like Users, Groups, or System Properties.

The global search bar at the top of the UI is another powerful tool. By default, it searches across multiple tables, including Incidents, Knowledge Base articles, and user records. As an admin, you can configure which tables are searched and how they are weighted. You can manage these settings under System Definition > Search Groups to make the global search more relevant to your organization's needs.

Finally, learning a few navigation shortcuts will save you countless clicks. You can type these commands directly into the Application Navigator's filter box and press Enter to jump directly to a specific list or form. They are an indispensable part of an efficient administrator's toolkit.

Time to check what you've learned about setting up your instance.

Mastering these foundational settings and navigation techniques is the first step toward effectively managing your ServiceNow instance.