Loading & Empty States

Make sure no user ever stares at a blank or frozen-looking screen: inventory every place the app waits or can be empty, choose the correct state for each by expected latency, and implement it. The prime directive: the indicator is chosen by how long the wait is and whether the layout is known — not by taste. Deliver an audit table covering every async surface plus the implemented states, never a lone spinner component.

When to use / when not to

Use for: loading indicators, skeleton screens, progress bars, empty states (first-use, no-results, error-empty, success-empty), "app looks frozen" complaints.

Hand off instead when the real need is:

• Making waits shorter or invisible (optimistic UI, preloading, caching) → skills/frontend-design/performance-optimization — always consider that first; the best loading state is none
• Error messages and recovery flows beyond a simple retry-empty-state → skills/frontend-design/error-handling-recovery
• Shimmer/spinner motion polish, timing tokens → skills/frontend-design/interaction-physics

Step 0 — Inspect the codebase, then ask only what's left