Search Handbook Cards

A skeleton screen expresses the structure of content about to arrive

Use a skeleton when the forthcoming structure is predictable

A mismatch with real content causes a jump

A long skeleton confuses more than a spinner

Scroll-position jumps and anchoring under asynchronous loading

Skeletons reduce subjective wait estimates more than spinners

A skeleton that does not match real structure produces a jump

Skeleton motion needs one shared cadence; mixed breathing looks cheap

Restyling is allowed provided the skeleton does not change

Give the interface a consistent, predictable structure

When structure cannot be predicted, use an indeterminate indicator

Stable structure with variable content is easier to master than a structure that also moves

An indicator on a very short load creates needless flicker

Placeholder flicker during a fast flick hurts readability

Distinguish "not done" from "not recognised"

Users need to tell where they are in the plan and how much remains

Later content must not shove what is already on screen

Every step of chunked presentation should be a coherent usable state, not a half-built product

Confine difference to a few expression layers

Motion inside capture range but outside the interaction volume is easily mistaken for system failure

Empty states must show what filling them yields

A local load should not cover the whole page

Infinite-scroll restore depends on how much was loaded; returning too deep retriggers fetch

A spinner carries no progress and, used for long, is read as frozen

A long invisible wait hurts more than painting a fallback first

Long spoken answers need structure, not a linear dump

Showing unusable controls early creates an unresponsive impression

Users at different experience levels may hold qualitatively different mental models

The coordinate anchor decides whether the volume is device-fixed or relocates with the body

Visible and operable are two different moments

Faux-bold and faux-italic change how text can be read

Hand-role binding requires continuous correct left-right identification; errors swap functions

Distance selects which input is available

Empty states must separate no data, no results, and error

A body-anchored volume keeps the operating experience consistent after the user moves

Personalization weakens teachability; users can no longer guide one another with the same language

Small sizes need their own drawings, not uniform scaling

This interval needs status confirmation, not a progress bar

Names must not assume order or count of given and family names

Capability intros need speakable examples

Tree testing isolates structural findability from visual design

Loading, empty, and error are the states most often left unspecified

Past that point, wait feedback is required

The same sentence on every item conveys no information

When a phrasing fails, recovery should offer another way to say it

An empty state is the best place for first-use guidance

A trigger that fires too late leaves a visible hole

A physical metaphor unifies hierarchy, space, and motion

Focus must move when new dynamic content appears

Conventions ship with the implementation library, spreading through code rather than documents