Users keep asking me how to create a custom list in SharePoint 2013. However, they are not asking for details and secrets of custom list functionality or settings (since this is very similar to previous versions of SharePoint). What they mean is: “I don’t see a menu option or a button which will initiate the new list creation form.”
They usually look for it in two places: “Site Contents” and “Site Settings”. When they don’t find it, their first guess is that this functionality is “hidden” somewhere, e.g. there is a submenu in “Site Settings”, but they just don’t want to search for it. Their second guess is that they don’t have permissions which grant them a right to create custom lists, and that is why the option is not visible to them.
Their first guess is correct in any case. 🙂 However, “Site Settings” is not a place to look for it; one actually has to select “add an app” tile in “Site Contents”.
Users usually don’t venture to “add an app”. This is new functionality in SharePoint/Office 365, and they don’t want to “install” anything. They rarely think this is sensible place to look for custom lists. Anyway, they should just click “add an app” and the “Custom List” tile is there:
And from that point forward, your users will find themselves in more familiar landscapes.