Empathy 2.23.6, Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex alpha 3

Empathy's initial window says "To add a new account, you can click on the 'Add' button and a new entry will be created for you to start configuring", followed by a large amount of empty space.

This text makes it unclear how to set up Empathy to use an *existing* account. I predict that people would reasonably conclude that Empathy works only with new IM accounts, not existing ones.

It is also overly abstract: nobody wants to "configure" an "entry" when they could be setting up an instant messaging account instead.

Finally, it is inefficient: since setting up an account is the only useful thing you can do at this point, it should not be necessary to click an "Add" button to begin the process.

One way of fixing these problems would be to show the Add Account interface immediately, using radio buttons to distinguish between registering a new account and setting up an existing account. If you have just started Empathy and have zero accounts, the interface could be preceded by a sentence or two of introductory text explaining why you need to do this.

Something like this:

    Welcome to Empathy! To get started chatting, you need to set up an
    instant messaging account.

    (*) I already have an account I want to use
    ( ) I want to sign up for a new account

    Account type: [...