Day 4 — Your app survives bad days too

What you have afterwards: Empty, error, offline and resume states are designed.

Goal

You give every state outside the happy path an understandable answer.

Understand briefly

Most bad app experiences do not happen in the success case. They happen when there is nothing, when the network crawls, when someone taps twice or comes back a week later. A raw error code is no answer: it names no reason and offers no repair. Check text scaling, contrast and reduced motion in the same pass.

Follow along

Paste this prompt into the AI tool you work with:

My app has this core loop: [YOUR FOUR STEPS]

Add exactly these states without changing the happy path:
1. Empty state with one clear next action.
2. Error state in human language, with a reason and a retry action — no technical code.
3. Offline and slow-network state.
4. Resume: what does someone see who comes back after a week?

Show me how to trigger each state on purpose.

Build it yourself

Trigger every state on purpose once: turn off the network, clear your data and tap an action twice.

Verify

Only tick a box once you have really checked it. These criteria are the only way to finish this unit.

Empty and error states explain reason and next action in human language.
Something understandable happens without network and on a slow connection.
Coming back after a longer break does not land in nothing.
I checked larger text, contrast and reduced motion once.

0 of 4 confirmed

Still open: 4 criteria

Self-check

Three questions about decisions you made today. There are no points and no grade — only the why. Every answer can be changed.

1. A network call in your app fails. What must the user see at that moment?

A loading state until the connection returnsWhat went wrong and what they can do nowThe technical error message from the interface

2. An area of your app is still empty because the user has created nothing. What belongs there?

Nothing — hide the area until data existsWhy it is empty and the first sensible actionA zero or an empty list

3. Larger text, contrast and reduced motion — when do you check those?

Shortly before release, once the interface is settledNow, in the same pass as the other statesWhen someone complains or an audit is due

0 of 3 answered

Next step

Tomorrow it is about everything that has to be right around the app.

Next: Day 5 — Operations, legal and cost limits are set