Accessing the interface just requires you to open the browser and point it at http://localhost:8080/geoserver/web. If you have read the previous chapter and executed the examples, you should have changed the default password for the admin user.
You can use the new one to log in again on GeoServer; we will now focus our attention on the interface's layout.
Consider the following screenshot. You may recognize three main areas in the GeoServer web interface:
The central area shows you some information about the GeoServer status--the elements inside it change according to the operation you are performing. Just after you log on, it shows you a brief detail of the configured data, and warning or errors that you should correct. The last line shows the release number and there is a link to the administrator mailbox; it defaults to a famous ancient geographer until you insert your data.