Every empty, error and edge
Unit 7 of 8 · Lesson 3 of 3Index
The unhappy path is most of the product
Doing it with AI, and where it breaks
Ask a model for every state of one screen, then find the ones it missed because they only exist in your product.
It gives you the generic eight. States like a bank that connects and returns no transactions are never on a generic list.
Here is one screen and what it does [describe it]. List every state it can be in, with the exact message a user would see in each. Then list the questions you would need answered about our product to find states you have not listed.
Build it
A complete states matrix for one screen, with the words for every state.
The worked solution
Stuck, or want to compare?
There is a worked solution. Try the build first. Reading it before you have attempted anything is the fastest way to learn nothing.
Checkpoint
If you did the build, these take two minutes. If you cannot answer one of them, that is the part to go back to.
Moving on marks this lesson complete. Finish the build first, it is the part that counts.