Empty states—screens with no content or data—present crucial opportunities to engage, educate, and guide users. Thoughtful empty state design turns potentially confusing moments into valuable experiences that drive activation.
Empty State Categories
- First-use emptiness: Initial experience before content exists
- User-cleared emptiness: Intentionally emptied by user actions
- Error-state emptiness: No results due to system issues
- Search-zero emptiness: No matches for query criteria
- Filtered-out emptiness: No content meeting applied filters
- Loading-state emptiness: Temporary absence during retrieval
- Permissions emptiness: Content exists but isn't accessible
Strategic Empty State Functions
- Education: Explaining the current context and purpose
- Guidance: Providing clear next steps and actions
- Encouragement: Motivating users to create or add content
- Demonstration: Showing examples of potential content
- Personality: Expressing brand voice in unexpected moments
- Progress: Indicating advancement in the user journey
- Conversion: Moving users toward key activation points
Implementation Best Practices
- Create contextually relevant messaging and visuals
- Provide clear call-to-action for appropriate next steps
- Balance appropriate humor with utility
- Offer helpful guidance without overwhelming
- Maintain visual consistency with overall product design
- Consider the user's journey stage in content tone
- Test empty states with actual new users
User Experience Impact
Well-designed empty states can increase feature activation by up to 30% and significantly reduce support requests for zero-data situations, transforming potential confusion into productive action.
Expert Perspective
As designer Scott Hurff explains: "Empty states aren't edge cases—they're someone's entire experience with your product. They deserve as much design attention as your most complex features."