Designing Effective Empty States for Mobile Apps

When designing a product, meeting current requirements is essential, but handling empty or exception states is often overlooked.

Any screen or operation can encounter an abnormal condition, and users need clear explanations or actions.

The six typical empty‑state categories are:

Network exception

Data consumption

Load/operation failure

No search results

No permission & server exception

Feature under construction

1. Network Exception

When a mobile device loses network connectivity, uploading and downloading fail, preventing normal product use. Apps usually inform users in three ways:

(1) Tips : Show a tip banner when the app opens and the home page displays a list, as seen in WeChat or QQ.

(2) Toast : Display a toast message indicating the network issue and suggest offline actions, e.g., NetEase Cloud Music lets users listen to downloaded songs.

(3) Placeholder page : Show a default page with a refresh button, like Xiaohongshu does when offline.

2. Data Consumption

When an operation consumes significant mobile data (video playback, music streaming, video calls, file upload/download), the app should warn the user.

(1) Bilibili shows a prompt with data usage and a button to continue.

(2) Duoduo Real Estate warns about mobile data before playing a video and offers a continue button.

(3) NetEase Cloud Music displays a layer indicating data usage and provides options to continue or manage data.

(4) Xiaohongshu uses a brief toast (1 second) for short videos.

3. Load/Operation Failure

Apps often indicate loading failures on the playback screen, especially when Wi‑Fi is unavailable, and may provide a retry button.

4. No Search Results

When a search yields no matches, the UI should inform the user and suggest alternatives.

(1) Duoduo Real Estate shows a blank page with a reason and recommended alternatives.

(2) Taobao uses a tip to indicate no results and offers recommendations.

5. No Permission

Permission issues are common in B‑side products where different organizational roles have varying access rights.

Duoduo Real Estate‑Boss informs users without permission and provides contact options for assistance.

6. Feature Under Construction

When a feature is not yet available, apps may display an illustration or message indicating it is “coming soon.”

These examples illustrate six common exception states and practical ways to communicate them to users.