3 Ways to Implement Skeleton Components in React

Learn how to use this technique to improve the UX of your React applications

There’s nothing worse than seeing a blank white page or an infinite spinning wheel when a website or app is loading. Luckily, most modern websites or apps today use skeleton components to reduce our anxiety and frustrations.

In this article, let’s talk about skeleton components — what they are, why they are important, and how to implement them.

What is a Skeleton Component?

When a screen or webpage is loading, skeleton components are the placeholder elements that the user sees before the actual content is loaded.

There are typically 2 types of skeleton components: 1. Content Placeholders 2. Colour Placeholders

Content placeholders are usually the light gray boxes and circles you would see in websites like YouTube, Medium, Facebook, etc. These placeholders do not need any data on its actual data, and it only serves to mimic what the page looks like. For example, below is a blank skeleton content placeholders in YouTube.