Tells actors that there’s no content to display. Provides explanation and guidance to help actor progress. Typically surfaces a Button as the primary call to action.
Variants
Blank slate
Basic empty state for first use experience.
Nothing to report
We’ll keep you updated on any new developments.
Informational
Provides information about what to do next.
You don’t have access to this content
Make sure the content exists. If it does, ask an admin for a permission to see the content.
Educational
A contextual onboarding flow to gain deeper understanding of the system.
Get insights by connecting your data
Don’t worry—no coding needed. We’ll walk you through it step by step.
Guiding
Starter that allows users to learn the system by tinkering or setting up their data.
Pick a template to begin customising your workflow
TODO: Replace with some cards
Consequences
- the gap explains itself and points somewhere: the actor knows why there is nothing here and what would put something here
- first-run emptiness is the largest uninterrupted surface the product ever gets, and it arrives in front of an actor who has committed nothing yet
- the empty states multiply — every filter, every permission boundary, every new container has one — and the ones nobody wrote say nothing
Related patterns
Hosts
- Onboarding — the empty state is often the canvas onboarding builds on
Enacts
- Learnability — the educational and guiding variants teach the system from inside the gap they announce