Mara Kestrel Booking from February 2027

5 min read

Write the empty state first

The first screen most people see is an empty one. Designing it first makes the rest of the product clearer.

The screen everybody sees

Design reviews show products full of perfect sample data. Real people meet them empty: no projects yet, no results, nothing synced. That first empty screen is where people decide whether they understand the product.

An empty state answers three questions

What is this place for? Why is it empty? What can I do about it? If you cannot answer all three in two sentences and one button, the feature itself is probably unclear.

This is why I write the empty state before the full one. It is a cheap test of the idea.

Not all empty is the same

There is the first-use empty state, the “no results for this filter” state, the “you have done everything” state and the “something went wrong” state. Each needs different words. Treating them alike is why so many apps say “No data” when they mean “All done”.

— Mara

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Mara Kestrel
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Designing for 3 a.m. Most interfaces are designed at 11 in the morning by rested people. Some are used at 3 at night by exhausted ones. Here is what changes.
The case for fewer alerts Alert fatigue is a design problem, not a discipline problem. Four questions I ask before any notification ships.
Write the empty state first The first screen most people see is an empty one. Designing it first makes the rest of the product clearer.
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