States of Design
1. Nothing
What happens before your component does anything? Maybe it’s the first time a user sees it. Maybe it’s not activated yet. Essentially, the component exists but hasn’t started.
2. Loading
The dreaded state. In a perfect world, no one would ever see this; Alas, here we find ourselves. There are plenty of ways to keep your loading state subtle and unobtrusive.
3. None
Your component has initialized, but it’s empty. No data. No Items. Now may be a good time to get the user to act (“Do this thing!”), or to reward them (“Good job, everything is taken care of”).
4. One
You have some data. On an input, this may be after the first keystroke. In a list, it might be when you have one item (or one left).
5. Some
This is usually what you think of first. What is the ideal state for this component? Your data is loaded, you have input, and the user is familiar with it.
