Empty State Handling in iOS 17 & SwiftUI 5
An empty state in a view refers to a condition where the view lacks meaningful content to display, often occurring when there is no data available or certain criteria are not met. It plays a crucial role in user interface design by providing feedback and context to users, preventing confusion and frustration. By displaying informative messages or visual representations, empty states communicate the absence of content and help manage user expectations. Effectively incorporating empty states enhances the user experience, improves usability, and ensures users understand the current state of the application, promoting clarity and engagement in content-deficient situations.
With the release of iOS 17, Apple released a view dedicated to handle the empty state scenarios. The view is aptly called ContentUnavailableView and it is described by Apple as “an interface, consisting of a label and additional content, that you display when the content of your app is unavailable to users.”
Following are some of the use cases where empty state can be used:
- Network error
- A search that returns no results
- A collection without items
Let’s take a closer look at this view.
