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On our business website, much like reddit.com where it shows karma, we show 0 as a default/ initial value till the page is loaded (for a bunch of values that can be 0, but that is not a good meaning). Instead of 0 is there any other character (don't want an image) that can indicate that the value is unknown/ not yet loaded? Or blank? Maybe put "0 xyz" but use font color so its invisible but the page layout builds, so there is no flicker after real value is replaced (need to change font color) A better UX?

To me, showing 0 initially is misleading. Also it might be a function of how slow the APIs are - when it more than a secodn after loading basic page to get that information it is noticeable reddit page loading karma at 0 on top left

I think this question is different from Is showing a blank page preferable to showing an empty one? as some elements have loaded but others have not (on our page and sometimes notice that on reddit, though i could not capture such a moment on reddit and not supposed to share image of our page)

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    Both the questions look the same to me. If it is about what other character can be used instead of 0, I personally prefer an em-dash (—) to indicate a missing value.
    – Ren
    Commented Aug 23 at 10:05
  • Thanks that looks better than a hyphen @ren
    – tgkprog
    Commented Aug 24 at 20:43
  • what about displaying a descriptive message like "loading..." or "loading karma..." or leave the widget on invisible as long as the data is not available yet. I imagine you are somewhat limited, because for a developer the data is a number and the "karma" is a static text, but for a user this whole widget appears as one unit. As long as there is no data loaded, the interactions with it are not possible.
    – Antares
    Commented Aug 26 at 16:24
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    that is a possibility too. @antares but in this case atleast just showing a dash is less work, as the code to full up the value is already there so just changed the initial text and the rest works
    – tgkprog
    Commented Aug 26 at 16:33

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