What are the empty state designs to retain users?

Empty state, or 0 data status, many times not too recruit designers to see. We are basically in the main process interface design work will be back to consider the perfect, because from the performance of the view, the feeling of empty state is temporary, some insignificant. Do not be confused by the name of the empty state, in fact, this state in the guidance, pleasure and retention of users and other aspects of the product experience in the details of the success and failure of the role can not be ignored.

Empty states usually appear in situations such as initial use, completion, or emptying of content, software errors, and so on. From the product experience point of view, the empty state can generally be triggered by the following three types of situations:

Product Initial Experience

Successful completion of the target task

Error, failure

Your app's performance in these three categories can push the user's relationship to the product in two directions:

Increased user engagement and loyalty to maintain stability

The user temporarily or permanently abandons this product

Everyone likes the first direction, but most products are walking the second way, which is one of the decisive factors, you are in the empty state of this seemingly obscure place to spend some of the money.

　　Initial experience

We designed a series of stunning UI drafts, with sample content and images that might have been carefully selected. But for real products, the most important thing is to ensure that users can stay long enough without any content, and to experience your design through enough actions.

The nature of the user is unpredictable, especially during the brief period of initial interaction with the product.

Recently, Quettra has collected and analyzed app retention rates for 125 million of mobile device users, and the findings are worrying.

On average, the number of active users (DAU) decreased by 77% in the first 3 days after the app was downloaded. Within 30 days, the drop rate reached 80%.

How has such a low retention rate been caused? Shoddy, impractical use of the necessary apps too much? This is one of the reasons, but not all.

"Users will try multiple apps of the same type and then decide which ones are not appropriate within the next 3-7 days." For "decent"app, once the user decides to keep it for more than 7 days, it will last longer. " The key to success is how to keep the product in good interaction with the user during these 3-7 days. "Ankit Jain–quettra

Although the research data for mobile app, but in the desktop client and the Web, the results are similar.

Ask yourself a question: if we know what the user is likely to find at any time in the next week, give up our product, is it possible, in this early experience cycle, for us to increase the user's sense of engagement and fragile loyalty through the optimization of the empty state experience, and to push the interactive experience in the right direction, Finally get through this period of crisis?

　　Design of empty state

You may want to focus on the empty state of the product's first experience process, because this link is relatively special and is part of the user-led mechanism in some way. In this scenario, the empty state interface should achieve the following goals:

　　1. User Education and Product description

In the initial experience process, the primary goal of the empty State is to educate and guide the user, to help them quickly understand the primary function and the way to operate, to avoid the negative feelings of confusion and helplessness.

Tell users what happens through the empty state interface in the first experience process to help them build expectations. Of course, most of the time your app boot page is used to do this, but the reality is that users often get impatient to skip the boot page, and it's hard to remember all the features and actions before you actually get into the app environment. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that you treat the empty state of your first use as an important part of the product's initial experience.

Good empty state design can reflect the following aspects of information:

What is: Describe the function or information in the interface.

Where: Tell the user that he is now at the beginning of the experience process or other specific location.

When: A looping mechanism that implies user content, letting them know what behavior produces content.

There are usually two ways to convey this information, either a concise copy, or a sample content that tells the user what form it will be after the data is generated, creating a more intuitive expectation for it. Either way, provide the necessary bootstrap information to let the user know what to do with the status of the content to be achieved.

　　2. Differentiation and positive emotions

Educational guidance is just one way to push products to communicate with users, and it is only a matter of time before the user makes the decision to take a moment to explore the product, and any detail in the first experience process will affect the user's lack of patience and irrational decision-making.

A good first impression is made up of many factors, and usability is only a part of it. In the product personalization, emotional and so on, try to consider:

Can you present some forms of novelty, exceeding expectations but still relevant to the product concept in an empty state?

Can users smile through the proper form?

Can the brand positioning, style, and quality be conveyed through appropriate forms?

As we have seen in the previous study, the app age is littered with free or low-cost products, and users tend to quickly explore and compare them in a number of similar products. How do you make sure your app stands out from the crowd? Although that sounds like a trivial thing to do, if you can actually show something different at the beginning of an empty state, it is telling the user that the entire product experience that your app brings is different.

Take some time to see how competing goods or other similar products do this, and try to do better than them in these areas:

Branding: Strengthening the presentation of brand elements in the right way.

Differences: Show design ideas in meaningful ways, embody professional and humorous colors, and create a positive emotional environment.

Human nature: Show your family product or business humanization, personalized.

In this aspect of pleasure, your goal is to be in the right way to trigger the user's positive emotions, so that users in the shortest possible time to feel the product differentiation.

　　3. Operation Guide

We have learned the importance of first impressions, especially in the short and irrational assessment time of the user. But whether you can achieve real success, or to see if you can through the empty state to cause the user to fill the blank desire, guide them into the actual operation process.

The empty state interface can be conceived as some kind of landing page, while maintaining the minimum design principle, constructing the scene atmosphere, using the necessary text to explain the feature, and then guiding the user into the usage process with a glance visual element.

A strong-booting null-state interface can contain the following three components:

Excitation: Use a motivational language or graphic element, such as "Let's Get started!" Wait a minute. The so-called motivation to meet the product's target user characteristics, rather than randomly shouting a set of encouraging words.

Persuasion: A concise exposition of the value proposition, allowing users to know what the benefits will be after interacting with the product.

Boot: Provides a clear view of the function entrance, using the obvious CTA (call to Action) element, or through some visual element to direct the user's attention to the CTA element. If there is no special need, then only here to provide a core function portal, do not allow users to spend time to think and choose. CTA elements should have good interactivity, including appearance and click Area, etc. to be considered.

"Most of the time, the reason people give up a product is that we can control it, for example, they can't see clearly what benefits they can get from interacting with your app." "–patrick Mckenzie

　　Summary

Most of our day-to-day design work is focused on interfaces that are full of data content and functionality that require careful balancing of layouts, which is the most challenging and exciting aspect of interface design. But think about, for many types of products, in the interface between the user is actually a layer of empty state-whether it can make this state better to take the role, so that users really enter the experience process? It is worth the effort to devote more time and attention to this matter.