UX Glossary · E
Empty state
Also: Zero state · Blank slate
What a screen shows when there is nothing to show, which is often the user's first impression.
An empty state is a screen with no content: a dashboard before any data, a list with no items, a search with no results, an inbox that is genuinely empty.
Why it is the highest-leverage screen in most products
Because every new user sees it first, and at exactly the moment they are least certain and most open to instruction. A grey box saying “No data available” wastes that moment completely.
There are three distinct kinds and they need different treatment.
First use. Nothing exists yet. This is an onboarding opportunity: explain what belongs here, why it is useful, and provide the action that creates the first one. Sample data that can be deleted is often better than a description.
User cleared it. Everything is done. This is a success state and should read like one.
No results. The user searched or filtered and got nothing. This is the one most often handled badly: it needs to say what was searched, suggest how to broaden it, and offer a route back. A dead end here sends people away.
In practice
Design empty states at the same time as the populated ones. Designed afterwards, they get whatever was left over, which is how the most important screen in the product ends up as a placeholder.