Empty State
An empty state is what a user encounters when a screen, section, or feature has no content to display. The most critical empty state is the one a brand-new user sees immediately after signing up: an empty dashboard, a blank project list, a CRM with zero contacts. It is the product's first impression at the exact moment the user is deciding whether to invest effort or leave.
Empty states also appear throughout the product lifecycle. A user opens a reporting tab for the first time. A team creates a new workspace. A filter returns zero results. Each of these moments is a micro-decision point where the user either takes the next step or stalls. How a product handles these moments reveals how deeply the team understands their users' psychology.
The worst empty states show a blank page or a generic "no data yet" message. The best ones treat the emptiness as an opportunity: they explain what will go here, why it matters, and give the user a clear, low-friction action to fill the space. The empty state is not the absence of a product experience. It is one of the most important product experiences you will ever design.
Why it matters for SaaS
For PLG products, the empty state is where a disproportionate number of users churn. Studies on SaaS onboarding consistently show that 40-60% of free trial users never return after their first session. When you investigate why, the empty state is often the culprit. The user signed up with enthusiasm, landed on a blank screen, did not immediately understand what to do next, and left.
The problem is psychological, not technical. An empty product feels like work. The user knows they need to add data, configure settings, invite teammates, or create something, but the activation energy required is higher than their current motivation. Every second they spend staring at an empty screen, their confidence that this product is worth the effort decreases. This is the critical window where time-to-value either compresses or stretches toward abandonment.
Empty states are also one of the highest-leverage design investments a product team can make. Because every single new user encounters them, even a small improvement in empty state effectiveness compounds across your entire user base. If your empty state redesign moves activation from 30% to 35%, you have just increased the number of users who experience your product's core value by nearly 17% without spending a dollar on acquisition.
How it works in practice
A well-designed empty state in a project management tool does not just say "No projects yet." It shows a preview of what a populated project board looks like, with a prominent "Create Your First Project" button and a secondary option to import from another tool. Below that, a short sentence explains: "Projects help your team track work from start to finish. Most teams create their first project in under two minutes."
Some products take this further with sample data. A CRM might pre-populate the empty state with a fictional company and deal pipeline so the user can immediately see the product in action. When the user is ready, they replace the sample data with their own. This approach lowers the activation energy dramatically because the user skips the "cold start" and starts by modifying something that already exists rather than creating from scratch.
The most sophisticated approach combines empty state design with guided onboarding. Instead of just showing a button and hoping the user clicks it, the product proactively walks the user through the first action. A design tool might open a template gallery the moment the dashboard loads, so the user never actually sees the empty canvas. The empty state effectively does not exist because the product bridges the gap before the user notices it.
Empty State vs Aha Moment
Empty states and aha moments sit at opposite ends of the activation journey. The empty state is the starting point: the gap between signup and value. The aha moment is the destination: the instant the user realizes the product solves their problem. Everything you do in onboarding is essentially building a bridge from the former to the latter.
The relationship is causal. A poor empty state pushes the aha moment further away by adding confusion and friction. A great empty state pulls it closer by channeling the user directly toward the action that generates their first experience of value. When a project management tool's empty state leads the user to create their first task and assign it to a colleague, it is engineering the shortest possible path to the aha moment of seeing collaborative work happen.
This is why optimizing these two concepts together is more effective than addressing either in isolation. Identify your aha moment first, then design your empty state to be the on-ramp to that specific experience. If your aha moment is "user sees their first automated report," then your empty state should not ask them to configure their profile. It should point them straight at connecting a data source.
How Floe approaches this
Floe turns the empty state from a dead end into a conversation. Instead of leaving a new user alone with a blank screen and a button, Floe's AI agent greets them in the moment and offers to guide them through their first meaningful action as part of onboarding. The agent understands the product's interface, knows what the empty state is asking the user to do, and can walk them through it step by step using guided plans with voice guidance and direct interaction.
This matters because empty states assume the user knows what to do next. They often do not. A "Create Your First Project" button is only useful if the user understands what a project means in this context, what information they need to provide, and why it is worth the effort. An AI agent can provide that context conversationally, answer questions, and even perform actions on the user's behalf, compressing the empty state into a moment rather than a barrier.
FAQ
What makes an effective empty state? Three elements: clarity about what will live here and why it matters, a single primary action that moves the user forward, and just enough context to make that action feel achievable. Avoid overwhelming users with multiple options or long explanations. The goal is momentum, not education. If possible, include a visual preview showing what the populated state looks like so the user can picture the outcome.
Should you use sample data to fill empty states? Sample data can be very effective, especially for data-heavy products where the value is not obvious until there is something to look at. The risk is that users may not understand how to transition from sample data to real data, or they may evaluate the product based on the sample content rather than their own use case. If you use sample data, make the path to replacing it with real data obvious and frictionless.
How do you measure whether your empty state is working? Track the conversion rate from empty state to first meaningful action. If your dashboard empty state includes a "Create Project" button, measure what percentage of new users click it within their first session. Compare that to the overall activation rate. If many users see the empty state but few take the next step, the empty state is a bottleneck. Session recordings and heatmaps can reveal whether users are confused, distracted, or simply not motivated by what they see.