Empty states: the first screen nobody designs
“No data” made new users think Tally was broken. Three kinds of empty, and what each one should say.
On this page
The first time someone opens a new dashboard, there is nothing in it. No data, no charts, no history. This empty screen is the first thing every new customer sees, and for a long time it was the screen we designed last. Here is how we fixed that.
What an empty state is
An empty state is any screen with nothing to show yet: a new dashboard, a search with no results, a chart before the first event arrives. They are easy to forget, because designers usually work with screens full of example data.
Our old empty dashboard said "No data" in grey, in the middle of a white page. New users told us they thought something was broken.
Three kinds of empty
We found three different situations, and each needs a different screen.
- First use. Nothing has happened yet. The screen should explain what will appear here and show the one step to make it happen.
- No results. The person searched or filtered, and nothing matched. The screen should say what was searched and offer a way to widen it.
- Cleared. The person finished everything, like an empty list of alerts. This is good news, and the screen should say so.
"No data" is a fact. "Your first chart appears here after the first event arrives. Here's how to send one" is help.
Tom Becker
What our empty screens do now
Every empty screen in Tally now has three parts: a short sentence about what will be here, one main action and a small preview of what it will look like. The preview is a faint example chart, clearly marked as an example, so people can picture the result.
| Screen | Old message | New message |
|---|---|---|
| New dashboard | No data | Add your first chart. Start with a template? |
| Search | No results | No events called "chekout". Did you mean "checkout"? |
| Alerts | No alerts | All clear. Nothing needs your attention. |
The results
After the change, the share of new users who added a chart in their first session went up from 48% to 71%. Support questions that started with "Is it broken?" almost disappeared.
Our rule now
We design the empty version of every new screen first. If we cannot explain what the screen is for when it is empty, we do not understand it well enough to design it full.
