Most product screens are designed full: a table with forty rows, a chart with a year of data, an inbox with unread messages. Then the product launches, a new user signs up, and the first thing they see is a blank page with a grey sentence in the middle.
On every project we now design the empty state of each screen before we design the full one. It sounds like a small habit. It changes the whole product.
The empty state is the real onboarding
A new user does not read your onboarding tour. They look at the empty screen and decide what to do next. If that screen tells them what will appear here, why it matters and the one action that fills it, they act. If it says No data yet, they leave.
For Halden Treasury, the empty dashboard shows the three steps to connect a bank account, with the time each one takes. Connecting the first account went from an average of two days to forty minutes.
What we write for every empty state
- What will appear here, in one sentence.
- Why it is worth filling.
- The single action that fills it, as a button.
- A link to sample data for people who want to look first.
If an empty screen needs a tour to explain it, the screen is not finished.
It makes the full state better too
Writing the empty state forces the question every screen should answer: what is this for? Once that sentence exists, the full state gets simpler. Columns that do not serve the purpose go, and the main action moves to where people expect it.
Start with the empty state on your next screen. Write the sentence first, then draw.
