We created a feature to allow users to filter projects. A member of our product team asked the question: “what content would you show users if the combination of filters they use doesn’t show any results?”. Empty states answer this question.
What an empty state is
An empty state is a state where there is nothing to show to users. They can appear when a user first encounters a digital product or feature.
They can also appear after an action, such as running a search that has no results.
Why we should use empty state content
We believe empty state content will be useful to users when filtering projects because:
“When you leave the empty state empty, you are basically telling your users what there isn’t. You are missing out on the opportunity to tell them what there is. For example, what could have been here, what they could gain from it, and what they can do to get things moving.” Kinneret Yifrah
“People largely abandon applications for reasons which are within our control: because they do not perceive value from interacting with the software.” Patrick Mckenzie.
What we did
We collated empty states from GOV.UK’s advanced search and 2 DfE services onto a Lucidspark board. We added sticky notes against each design and considered what would work in our context of filtering by projects.
We created a prototype design bringing together the ‘best bits’ of each empty state design. We also submitted a request for an empty state pattern as there wasn’t one on the Design System.
Next steps
We will ask users
- To test the prototype in user research.
- How they feel about the empty state content.
- How they feel about the empty state content and the success banner content. We suspect that the 2 content types could contradict each other but we need to validate this assumption.