Three States
Design for three states when creating user interfaces:
- Regular State
- Blank State (First visit - or no data)
- Error State (Opsi! An error occurred)
Most interfaces are only designed for the Regular State. As with everything - it’s a tradeoff.
Think of All States - Not Only the Regular State
Usually it is much better also keeping in mind what happens when your user visits your page for the first time (eg Blank State). Or what happens when there’s an error (server crashed etc).
More
- I’ve learned this from 37Signals and their great oldie Getting Real => https://basecamp.com/gettingreal/09.3-three-state-solution
- Awesome photo on top by Amélie Mourichon
