Fig. 57 / Empty State
UX & Process
Empty State
EXPLAINED SIMPLY:What the screen says before there's anything to show.
An empty state is what a screen shows when there's nothing to show yet: the inbox before any mail, the project list before the first project, the search that found no results.
It's the screen everyone forgets to design. The team builds the app around a healthy account full of data, then a brand-new user opens it for the first time and meets a blank white void. The empty state is your product's first impression, because every single new user starts there.
A good one tells you what this screen will become, hands you one clear first action, and keeps the moment from feeling like an error. "No results" and "Nothing here yet, create your first project" are very different sentences.
Designers also call it a blank state or zero state, and the no-results screen is its close cousin.
When you review a design, ask to see it empty. If the mockups only ever show the app fully loaded with beautiful fake data, the first-run experience hasn't been designed yet, just the hundredth-run one.