Skeleton

Display a placeholder preview of your content before the data gets loaded to reduce load-time frustration.

The data for your components might not be immediately available. You can increase the perceived performance for users by using skeletons. It feels like things are happening immediately, then the information is incrementally displayed on the screen (Cf. Avoid The Spinner).

The component is designed to be used directly in your components. For instance:

{item ? (
  <img style={{ width: 210, height: 118 }} alt={item.title} src={item.src} />
) : (
  <Skeleton variant="rect" width={210} height={118} />
)}

Variants

The component supports 3 shape variants.

<Skeleton variant="text" />
<Skeleton variant="circle" width={40} height={40} />
<Skeleton variant="rect" width={210} height={118} />

Animations

By default, the skeleton pulsate, but you can change the animation for a wave or disable it entirely.

<Skeleton />
<Skeleton animation={false} />
<Skeleton animation="wave" />

Pulsate example

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Wave example

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Why First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon thinks GDP is the wrong measure of a country's success:

Inferring dimensions

In addition to accepting width and height props, the component can also infer the dimensions.

It works well when it comes to typography as its height is set using em units.

<Typography variant="h1">
  {loading ? <Skeleton /> : 'h1'}
</Typography>

body1

caption

But when it comes to other components, you may not want to repeat the width and height. In these instances, you can pass children and it will infer its width and height from them.

loading
  ? <Skeleton><Avatar /></Skeleton>
  : <Avatar src={data.avatar} />

Ted

Accessibility

Skeleton screens provide an alternative to the traditional spinner methods. Rather than showing an abstract widget, skeleton screens create anticipation of what is to come and reduce cognitive load.

The background color of the skeleton uses the least amount of luminance to be visible in good conditions (good ambient light, good screen, no visual impairments).

API

<Skeleton />