The empty state is the moment your product is most likely to lose a new user, and the moment it gets the least design attention. Someone has just signed up, clicked into the main screen, and found — nothing. No projects, no history, no dashboard full of numbers, none of the richness they saw in your marketing. Just a blank panel and maybe a "Create your first…" button. In that half-second the user is not thinking about features. They are thinking a quieter, more dangerous thought: is this actually going to be worth the effort of setting it up?
That doubt is exactly the kind a testimonial is built to answer. The empty state is one of the few places in an app where a well-chosen quote does real work instead of decorating — because the user has no data of their own to look at yet, and social proof is the only evidence available that the blank screen in front of them turns into something valuable. This guide walks through where testimonials belong across your empty states, what kind of quote helps, and the discipline that keeps proof from turning into clutter once the user has real content of their own.
Name the doubt each empty state is really carrying
Not every empty state carries the same fear, and the wrong testimonial in the right slot reads as filler. Before placing anything, name what the user is actually unsure about at that screen.
- The first-run empty state ("you have no projects yet"). The doubt is will this be worth setting up? The user has committed nothing but a signup. A testimonial here should speak to the payoff — what someone got out of the product after they filled it with their own work.
- The feature-discovery empty state ("no automations configured", "no integrations connected"). The doubt is is this advanced feature worth learning? The user already gets basic value but is hesitating at a deeper investment. A testimonial here should come from someone who adopted that specific feature and names the result.
- The recovery empty state ("all caught up", "no results found", "inbox zero"). The doubt is usually none — the user is succeeding. This is the one empty state where a testimonial is almost always wrong. Don't sell to someone who's already winning.
The rule underneath all three: a testimonial belongs in an empty state only when the user is deciding whether to invest more, not when they've hit a dead end or already succeeded.
Match the quote to the action the screen wants
An empty state has a job — it wants the user to take one specific next step. The testimonial should make that step feel worth it, not brag about the product in general.
- On a "create your first project" screen, the quote should be about the value of a finished project, from someone whose use case echoes the new user's. A vague "Great app!" does nothing; "I had my first client dashboard live in twenty minutes" answers the exact hesitation.
- On a "connect your first integration" screen, the quote should name the integration and the payoff: "Once I connected our CRM, leads stopped falling through the cracks." Specificity is what turns proof into a reason to click.
- On a "no team members yet — invite someone" screen, use a quote about collaboration, ideally one that mentions team size close to the reader's likely situation.
The failure mode is a single generic testimonial reused across every empty state. Users notice, and a quote that clearly wasn't chosen for this screen reads as chrome, not evidence.
Keep it small, credible, and clearly attributed
Empty states are not landing pages. The testimonial has to earn its space without hijacking the screen or burying the call to action.
- One quote, not a carousel. An empty state is a focused moment. A rotating wall of testimonials competes with the button you want clicked. Pick the single strongest quote for that screen's doubt.
- Full attribution or don't bother. A name, a role, and ideally a company or photo. An anonymous "— a happy user" in an empty state actively lowers trust, because it signals the proof was invented. Real, verifiable attribution is the whole point.
- Below the action, not above it. The primary button is the reason the screen exists. Place the testimonial as supporting evidence beneath it, so it reassures without delaying the click.
If you can't fit a credible, attributed quote without crowding the call to action, use a smaller signal instead — a star rating, a customer count, a single logo. A cramped testimonial is worse than none.
Retire the proof the moment the user has their own
This is the discipline most teams skip, and it matters more than the placement. A testimonial in an empty state is a stand-in for evidence the user doesn't have yet. The instant they create their first project, connect their first integration, or generate their first result, they have their own evidence — and the borrowed proof should disappear.
Leaving a testimonial on a screen that now has real user data does two bad things. It clutters a working surface with marketing the user has already moved past, and it subtly implies you don't trust their own results to speak for the product. The empty state's testimonial is scaffolding: essential while the screen is blank, and something to remove the moment the user has built the real thing.
Practically, this means the testimonial should be bound to the empty condition itself — it renders only when the count is zero, and it's gone the moment there's one row of real data. If you're placing quotes into empty states by hand, revisit them the way you'd revisit any onboarding copy, and make sure none of them survive into a populated screen.
The one-line test
Before you ship a testimonial into any empty state, ask: does this answer the doubt the user has at this exact screen, and does it vanish the moment they have data of their own? If yes, it's doing the one job an empty-state testimonial can do — turning the loneliest moment in your product into a reason to take the next step. If no, it's decoration on a screen that can't afford any.
Empty states are where activation is won or lost, and they're chronically under-designed. A single, well-attributed, screen-specific testimonial — that knows when to leave — is one of the highest-leverage places you can put social proof in the entire product.