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Loading states 0:29
A 29-second explainer of Loading states, narrated over the same demo you can try yourself.
Try the interactive Loading states demo
What this video covers
Loading states inform users the interface is active during waits - using spinners, skeleton screens, determinate progress bars, or content streaming in. They ease uncertainty, make waits feel shorter, and reassure users the system isn’t frozen, turning idle time into a sense of progress.
The blank wait felt broken - did it freeze? The skeleton screen, previewing where content will land, felt faster and calmer even over the same delay, because you could see it working and knew what was coming. That's the job of a loading state: kill uncertainty and shrink the felt wait. Match the loader to the situation, and a necessary delay stops feeling like a fault.
