The Skeleton: Providing a Sense of Progress During Loading
The Skeleton component is a visual placeholder used to indicate the presence of content that is yet to be loaded, giving users a sense of progress and preventing the interface from appearing empty or unresponsive.
Features
Discover the key features of the Skeleton component.
Placeholder Loading
Skeleton provides placeholder loading for a seamless user experience during content retrieval. While data loads in the background, Skeleton displays a temporary representation of the layout, ensuring users perceive continuous progress and reducing perceived loading times.
Visual Continuity
Mimics content structure, ensuring visual continuity while data loads. By replicating the layout and styling of actual content elements, Skeleton creates a familiar visual pattern that helps users anticipate the final appearance of the page or component, enhancing their comprehension and reducing cognitive load.
Customizable Design
Tailor skeleton styles to match interface seamlessly, allowing you to customize its appearance, animation, and behavior to align with your brand's visual identity and user experience goals. By maintaining consistency in design, you can ensure that the skeleton effectively bridges the gap between content loading and presentation, providing users with a cohesive and engaging experience.
Anatomy
The Skeleton component typically consists of geometric shapes or outlines that represent the layout and structure of the actual content being loaded. These placeholders are designed to resemble the final content's dimensions and arrangement, helping users anticipate the content's appearance.
Example Use Cases
Loading States
Displaying a Skeleton to indicate that content is being fetched from a server or loaded asynchronously, thereby improving perceived performance and user experience.
Empty States
Presenting a Skeleton when there is no content available to display, such as an empty list or grid, to reassure users that the interface is functioning correctly and content will be loaded shortly.
Progressive Loading
Showing a Skeleton for progressively loading content, especially for images or complex components, to give users an idea of the layout and structure before the actual content is loaded.
Optimizing User Experience
Enhancing the perceived speed of the application by displaying Skeletons in place of actual content during initial page load or when navigating between pages.
Guidelines for Usage
When incorporating the Skeleton component into the design of an interface, adhere to the following guidelines:
Maintain Consistency: Ensure consistency in the design and placement of Skeletons across different parts of the interface to provide a cohesive user experience.
Match Content Structure: Design Skeletons that closely resemble the layout and structure of the actual content to give users an accurate preview of what to expect once the content is loaded.
Use Animation Wisely: Consider adding subtle animations to Skeletons to convey the sense of activity and progress, but avoid excessive or distracting animations that may hinder usability.
Accessibility Considerations: Ensure that Skeletons are accessible to users with disabilities by providing alternative text or labels where necessary, and ensuring compatibility with assistive technologies.
Performance Optimization: Optimize the performance of Skeletons by keeping them lightweight and minimizing unnecessary rendering or processing, especially on resource-constrained devices.
Variants
Card
Skeleton layout resembling a card, commonly used for displaying items in a grid or list format.
Circle
Circular-shaped skeleton placeholder, often used for profile pictures or avatar images.
Image
Placeholder for images, providing users with a preview of where the image will appear once loaded.
Line
Horizontal or vertical lines representing text or content boundaries.
Text
Skeleton text blocks mimicking the size and layout of actual text content.
List
Skeleton representation of a list or collection, displaying placeholders for individual list items.
Button
Placeholder for buttons, indicating their position and size within the interface.
Best Practices vs. Common Pitfalls
Do:
Use the Skeleton component to provide users with immediate feedback about content loading progress, reducing perceived latency and improving user experience.
Ensure that the Skeleton component's layout and structure closely resemble the final content to help users anticipate the content's appearance.
Customize the Skeleton component's variants to match different types of content representations within the interface, ensuring consistency and clarity.
Don't:
Overuse the Skeleton component excessively, as this can lead to visual clutter and distract users from the main content.
Make the Skeleton component too visually complex, as its primary purpose is to provide a simple placeholder for content loading, rather than being visually distracting.