What should customers see the first time they open our app?

Customers who already buy from you should open your app to find their own history waiting. Every screen that’s still empty should say what goes there and give the one action that fills it. Before you approve a screen full of sample content, ask to see it empty.

Why the empty screens get missed

App designs are usually shown full, with a long order history and a healthy points balance. It’s an old habit. In 2006, the software company 37signals noted in its book Getting Real (opens in a new tab) that designers fill their screens with data, while a new customer starts with none and judges the app on that empty first look.

So the full version gets approved, and the empty one is left to whatever the app shows by default, such as a blank page or a bare “No results”.

Who opens your app first

The first people to download your app will mostly be regulars, because they’re the ones who hear about it at the counter and in your emails. A regular who signs in to empty screens will wonder where their orders and points went.

If your app can’t show their history yet, its empty screens should say where to find it: “Orders from before June are in your account on our website.”

Empty and failed need different words

Each empty screen should say what will appear there and offer one button, named for what it does. Take a tailor’s app with a Bookings screen. Before the first booking, it should say that fittings and alterations will show there, and offer “Book a fitting”, not “Get started”. Nobody knows what “Get started” starts.

An empty screen must never stand in for one that failed to load, yet that’s what happens when one blank screen is built for both. If the connection drops, a customer with fifty orders is told “No orders yet”. The screen should say “Your orders didn’t load” instead, with a button to try again.

Before you sign off

1. Click through the designs as a new customer, with nothing in the account. Each empty screen should say what goes there and offer one action.
2. Click through again as a regular with years of history. Their history should be there, or each screen should say where to find it.
3. Ask to see each screen when it fails to load. It should say so, and offer to try again.
4. Once the app is built, repeat all three on your own phone, the last one in aeroplane mode.

The first screen your customers see is often the one nobody looked at.