Image AI Concept ArtIntermediate5 minSaves 1 hour

Generate Empty State Illustrations for Admin Console Sections

Q: How flexible is the `design_style` variable? Can I describe something very specific?

The `design_style` variable is highly flexible. You can input detailed descriptions like "neo-brutalist digital collage with halftone textures" or "minimalist flat vector art, gradient shadows." Specificity helps the AI maintain coherence across the set.

Product designers creating admin experiences can generate a consistent set of empty state illustrations for console sections, ensuring user guidance and brand alignment.

Create a cohesive set of four empty state illustrations tailored for an admin console. Each illustration will feature a consistent style, a gentle encouraging tone, and adhere strictly to your specified brand color palette. Ideal for product designers needing quick, on-brand visual assets for new or inactive sections.

Midjourney Flux

READY-TO-USE PROMPT

Copy Prompt

prompt.txt

Role: Act as a specialist in UI/UX illustration and prompt engineering, focusing on creating engaging visual assets for administrative interfaces. Your expertise lies in translating functional requirements into compelling visual narratives suitable for generative AI.

Context: Your current task involves designing a coherent set of four empty state illustrations for an admin console. These visuals are crucial for guiding users through initial setup, encouraging interaction, and maintaining a consistent brand presence even when sections are devoid of content. The overarching goal is to present a friendly and helpful interface, preventing user confusion or disengagement when faced with blank screens. The aesthetic should align with contemporary SaaS application design principles, prioritizing clarity and user comfort.

Task: For each of the four designated admin console sections, formulate a highly detailed and specific image generation prompt. Each prompt must describe a unique empty state illustration. Critically, these prompts must ensure a unified visual style, a consistent color palette derived from the brand, and an underlying tone of gentle encouragement. The resulting descriptions should be immediately usable as input for a leading image generation AI, focusing meticulously on visual elements, scene composition, implied narrative, and emotional impact.

Constraints:
1. **Visual Consistency**: All four illustration descriptions must strictly adhere to a unified visual style and illustration technique. Specify the `{{design_style}}` (e.g., "minimalist line art", "soft isometric", "flat vector with subtle gradients", "abstract geometric shapes") to ensure stylistic coherence across the set.
2. **Brand Color Palette**: Integrate the `{{brand_color_palette}}` precisely. Describe how these colors are used for backgrounds, foreground elements, accents, and any implied light sources within each illustration.
3. **Encouraging Tone**: Each illustration should subtly convey a helpful and encouraging message. The visuals should prompt user action or explain the current state without being explicitly instructional or stern. Focus on positive associations and forward momentum.
4. **No Embedded Text**: The generated image prompts should describe only the visual components of the illustration. Avoid including any specific text overlays or UI elements that would typically be added by a product designer in a separate layer. The image is purely illustrative.
5. **Specific Sections**: Generate distinct illustrations for the following four common admin console empty states. Each scenario requires a unique visual approach:
* **Dashboard/Overview**: Illustrate a sense of potential or readiness, indicating that data will appear once actions are taken.
* **User Management**: Visually represent the concept of inviting or adding team members, emphasizing collaboration.
* **Reports/Analytics**: Depict the idea of data collection and future insights, showing an empty graph or chart waiting to be populated.
* **Settings/Configuration**: Convey the initial setup process or the blank canvas of a new configuration, inviting the user to customize.
6. **Composition and Detail**: Each prompt should include details on composition (e.g., central focus, background elements), implied lighting, texture (if any), and the overall mood. Consider including subtle elements that suggest interactivity or progress without being explicit UI components.

Output: For each of the four specified sections, present a single, comprehensive image generation prompt. Each prompt should be structured as a rich, descriptive paragraph, detailing the visual scene, any abstract or character-like elements, the precise application of colors from the `{{brand_color_palette}}`, the overall mood, and the compositional arrangement. These prompts must be optimized for direct use in an image generation AI to produce high-quality, on-brand empty state visuals.

Estimated results

DifficultyIntermediate

Setup time5 min

Time saved1 hour

Best modelsMidjourney, Flux

Best audienceSoftware, Product Development

Editor's note

Why this prompt matters

When designing administrative consoles, product designers often encounter the challenge of empty states. These are screens users see before any data is populated, and if not handled thoughtfully, they can lead to confusion or disengagement. A blank screen offers no guidance and can make a new user feel lost, or an existing user unsure if something is broken. This workflow provides a structured approach to prevent these issues.

This workflow is built for product designers tasked with creating cohesive and user-friendly admin experiences. It addresses the need for a consistent set of empty state illustrations that not only fill the void but also gently encourage user interaction and align with the brand's visual identity. The goal is to transform a potentially negative user moment into an opportunity for guidance and positive reinforcement, fostering a smoother onboarding and usage experience.

Designers should reach for this workflow when initiating a new admin console project or refining an existing one where empty states are currently overlooked or inconsistently applied. It's particularly useful for establishing a clear visual language across different sections, ensuring that even in the absence of content, the interface remains intuitive and supportive while maintaining a strong brand presence.

Anatomy

Prompt engineering breakdown

Role

Act as a specialist in UI/UX illustration and prompt engineering, focusing on creating engaging visual assets for administrative interfaces.

Context

Your current task involves designing a coherent set of four empty state illustrations for an admin console. These visuals are crucial for guiding users through initial setup, encouraging interaction, and maintaining a consistent brand presence even when sections are devoid of content. The aesthetic should align with contemporary SaaS application design principles, prioritizing clarity and user comfort.

Goal

For each of the four designated admin console sections, formulate a highly detailed and specific image generation prompt. Each prompt must describe a unique empty state illustration. Critically, these prompts must ensure a unified visual style, a consistent color palette derived from the brand, and an underlying tone of gentle encouragement.

Constraints

Visual consistency with a `{{design_style}}`, precise integration of `{{brand_color_palette}}`, an encouraging tone without explicit instructions, no embedded text, and distinct illustrations for Dashboard, User Management, Reports, and Settings, with detailed composition and mood.

Output format

For each of the four specified sections, present a single, comprehensive image generation prompt. Each prompt should be structured as a rich, descriptive paragraph, detailing the visual scene, any abstract or character-like elements, the precise application of colors from the `{{brand_color_palette}}`, the overall mood, and the compositional arrangement. These prompts must be optimized for direct use in an image generation AI to produce high-quality, on-brand empty state visuals.

Why this structure works

This prompt leverages role priming by assigning the persona of a UI/UX illustration and prompt engineering specialist, setting the expectation for detailed and technically informed output. Explicit constraints on visual consistency, color palette integration, and the exclusion of embedded text ensure the AI focuses on core illustrative tasks and brand guidelines. The structured output requirement for distinct image prompts for each section further guides the AI to produce directly usable content, enhancing efficiency.

Pick your version

Prompt variations

BeginnerWorks with any model

When you need simple, clear image prompts for basic empty states without extensive detail, or when first experimenting with AI illustration.

prompt.txt

As an AI art director, create two simple empty state illustration prompts for an admin console. Focus on a `{{simple_design_style}}` (e.g., flat, cartoonish, line art) and use a `{{basic_color_palette}}`.
1.  **Dashboard**: Design an illustration suggesting potential and readiness, indicating where data will appear. Keep the elements clear and minimal.
2.  **User List**: Illustrate the concept of inviting or adding new team members. Show simple shapes representing people or an empty slot waiting to be filled.
Each prompt should be concise, describing the main subject, composition, and colors. Ensure the style is consistent across both, and the mood is friendly and approachable. No text should be included in the image descriptions.

ProfessionalBest with midjourney

When requiring precise control over visual style, color application, and narrative depth for empty state illustrations across multiple admin sections.

prompt.txt

Assume the role of a seasoned UI/UX illustration expert. Your objective is to craft four distinct, highly descriptive image generation prompts for empty state conditions within an admin console, ensuring absolute visual and tonal coherence.
Each prompt must articulate an illustration that adheres to a specific `{{design_style}}` (e.g., 'geometric abstraction', 'soft organic shapes', 'stylized isometric'). Integrate the `{{brand_color_palette}}` meticulously, detailing its application for primary elements, backgrounds, and subtle accents. The tone must be subtly encouraging, guiding users towards action without overt instruction.
Generate prompts for:
*   **Dashboard**: Visualize readiness or potential.
*   **Team Members**: Illustrate inviting or onboarding.
*   **Reports**: Depict data anticipation.
*   **Settings**: Show initial configuration or customization.
Focus on scene composition, implied movement, and the overall positive sentiment. Exclude any text or explicit UI elements from the visual descriptions.

Short VersionBest with flux

For rapid ideation or when platform character limits necessitate a condensed prompt, while still aiming for consistent empty state visuals.

prompt.txt

Generate four concise image prompts for admin console empty states: Dashboard, User Management, Reports, and Settings. Act as a UI illustrator, ensuring a `{{unified_style}}` and `{{brand_colors}}` are applied consistently across all. Each illustration must be gently encouraging, depicting potential or action (e.g., an empty chart awaiting data, a blank canvas for settings). Briefly describe the primary subject, key visual elements, and overall mood for each section. Crucially, no text should be present in the visual descriptions. The goal is a cohesive set of on-brand visuals optimized for direct AI image generation.

EnterpriseBest with midjourney

In environments with strict brand governance, accessibility requirements, and the need for stakeholder approval, where visual assets must meet predefined corporate standards.

prompt.txt

Function as a Lead Visual Strategist overseeing brand-critical UI assets. Your task is to develop four comprehensive image generation prompts for admin console empty states. These prompts must strictly conform to `{{corporate_brand_guidelines_document_id}}` for visual style and `{{approved_accessibility_color_palette_hex_codes}}`. Each illustration must project an encouraging, non-prescriptive tone, supporting user adoption while mitigating cognitive load.
Prioritize adherence to `{{design_style}}` and precise `{{brand_color_palette}}` application across: Dashboard (potential), User Management (collaboration), Reports (future insights), and Settings (customization). Emphasize compositional balance, implied narrative, and ensure all visuals are inclusive and align with corporate messaging. Output must facilitate stakeholder review by clearly delineating artistic intent and technical specifications, with no embedded text, ensuring compliance and brand integrity.

What you'll get

Expected output

Here are four image generation prompts for empty state illustrations, using a "soft isometric illustration" style and a brand color palette of "pastel blues (#A7D7F0), soft greens (#B8E8D4), gentle yellows (#F7E0A3), and warm grays (#D9D9D9)":

Dashboard/Overview: A soft isometric illustration depicting an open, empty book or a blank tablet screen floating centrally, surrounded by subtle, abstract data points or gentle rays of light emanating from its surface, suggesting potential and future activity. The background is a gradient of pastel blue (#A7D7F0) fading into warm gray (#D9D9D9). Elements like the book/tablet are rendered in soft greens (#B8E8D4) and gentle yellows (#F7E0A3), with shadows and outlines using slightly darker tones from the palette. The overall mood is hopeful and anticipatory, with a clean, airy composition that invites the user to start populating their dashboard.

User Management: A soft isometric illustration showing two abstract, gender-neutral figures standing apart, with a dotted line or a soft, glowing arc of gentle yellow (#F7E0A3) connecting them, extending outwards as if inviting a third. The figures are simplistic, rendered in soft greens (#B8E8D4) and warm grays (#D9D9D9), positioned on a pastel blue (#A7D7F0) platform. The background is a light, airy warm gray (#D9D9D9). The composition focuses on collaboration and growth, with a friendly, welcoming atmosphere. Subtle elements like floating geometric shapes in pastel blue (#A7D7F0) and soft green (#B8E8D4) add depth without distraction.

Reports/Analytics: A soft isometric illustration featuring a minimalist, empty bar chart or line graph framework, rendered in warm gray (#D9D9D9) lines, standing on a soft green (#B8E8D4) base. Above the chart, a single, stylized data point or a small, glowing orb in gentle yellow (#F7E0A3) floats, ready to descend and populate the graph. The background is a serene pastel blue (#A7D7F0) with a subtle, implied light source coming from the top, casting soft shadows. The mood is one of clarity and future insight, suggesting that valuable information is just waiting to be gathered. The composition is clean, emphasizing the anticipation of data.

Settings/Configuration: A soft isometric illustration presenting a large, empty cogwheel or gear outline, rendered in warm gray (#D9D9D9) and soft green (#B8E8D4), placed centrally on a blank, open workspace. Surrounding the cog are small, abstract building blocks or customization icons in pastel blue (#A7D7F0) and gentle yellow (#F7E0A4), waiting to be placed or assembled. The background is a soft gradient of warm gray (#D9D9D9) into pastel blue (#A7D7F0). The illustration conveys a sense of readiness for customization and setup, with a calm and inviting atmosphere. The composition emphasizes a blank canvas ready for user input.

Under the hood

Why this prompt works

This workflow produces high-quality, consistent empty state illustrations because it systematically applies several prompt engineering techniques. Firstly, role priming establishes the AI as a "specialist in UI/UX illustration and prompt engineering." This immediately directs the model's focus, activating relevant knowledge about design principles, visual aesthetics, and the specific needs of administrative interfaces. It sets the expectation for expert-level output rather than generic image descriptions.

Secondly, the prompt uses explicit constraints extensively. Directives like "unified visual style," "consistent color palette," "encouraging tone," and "no embedded text" guide the AI to maintain coherence across all four generated outputs. Specifying the design style and brand color palette ensures the AI has concrete parameters to work within, preventing stylistic drift. The detailed breakdown of four distinct sections, each requiring a unique visual approach while adhering to the overall theme, further constrains the output to be both diverse and unified.

Finally, the instruction for structured output ensures each illustration prompt is a "rich, descriptive paragraph" detailing composition, elements, color application, and mood. This structured approach, combined with the comprehensive context provided, prevents the AI from generating vague or unspecific descriptions. Instead of a single, ambiguous request, this multi-faceted approach breaks down a complex creative task into manageable, constrained sub-tasks, leading to a set of distinct yet harmonized image prompts ready for direct use in generative AI tools.

Model fit

Best AI models for this prompt

Midjourney

Midjourney excels at generating highly stylized and artistic illustrations, making it suitable for establishing a unique {{design_style}}. Its strength lies in interpreting abstract concepts and rendering them with a consistent aesthetic. However, precise adherence to a {{brand_color_palette}} may require careful prompt engineering and potentially multiple iterations. See the full Midjourney hub for deeper guidance.

Flux

Flux performs well with detailed compositional descriptions and can maintain consistency across a set of images when prompted effectively. It handles specific color instructions better than some alternatives, which is beneficial for {{brand_color_palette}}. Its output tends to be more literal, which can be advantageous for functional UI elements but might require more descriptive input to achieve artistic flair. See the full Flux hub for deeper guidance.

When to use

When designing new admin console sections that require initial visual guidance.
For refreshing existing empty states to improve user experience and brand alignment.
When needing a cohesive set of illustrations across multiple application modules.
To visually reduce friction for new users encountering blank data screens.
If your design system requires consistent visual language for all UI elements.

When not to use

When illustrations need to convey complex data or detailed instructions.
If the primary goal is a static image without any implied user interaction.
For illustrations intended for public-facing marketing materials or websites.
When existing design assets already cover empty states and only minor tweaks are needed.
If your project has no defined brand color palette or design style.

Get more from it

Pro tips

1
Iterate on `design_style`: Experiment with different styles (e.g., "minimalist line art") in early runs to lock down the aesthetic before generating the full set. This prevents style mismatch.
2
Refine `brand_color_palette`: Provide precise hex codes or clear color names. Vague descriptions can lead to off-brand outputs. Specificity ensures accurate color representation.
3
Emphasize encouraging tone: Describe the mood and implied action without using explicit text. This avoids the AI generating literal instructions or unhelpful imagery.
4
Detail composition: Specify foreground, background, and focal points for each illustration. This prevents chaotic or unbalanced visual arrangements.
5
Test model compatibility: Run single-illustration tests on your chosen AI (Midjourney, Flux) first. This confirms the model interprets your detailed prompts effectively, avoiding wasted generation credits.
6
Avoid over-specificity in objects: Focus on abstract concepts (data, collaboration) rather than hyper-detailed items. This allows the AI creative freedom within the style, preventing visual clutter.
7
Consider cultural nuances: If targeting a global audience, ensure the encouraging imagery is universally understood. This prevents misinterpretations of visual metaphors.

Don't ship this

Common mistakes

✗ The generated illustrations lack a unified visual style, appearing disconnected.
Fix — Clearly define the `design_style` at the outset and reiterate it consistently across all four prompts.
✗ Colors in the illustrations don't match the brand palette, resulting in off-brand visuals.
Fix — Provide exact color names or hex codes within the `brand_color_palette` variable and describe their application precisely.
✗ Illustrations feel static or unhelpful, not encouraging user action.
Fix — Focus prompt descriptions on implied motion, positive associations, and subtle cues for interaction.
✗ Prompts include text overlays or UI elements, leading to unusable image artifacts.
Fix — Strictly adhere to the "No Embedded Text" constraint; describe only visual components, not textual ones.
✗ The four illustrations depict similar scenes, failing to differentiate the admin sections.
Fix — Ensure each prompt describes a unique visual narrative specific to its designated empty state (Dashboard, Users, Reports, Settings).
✗ Output images are too literal, lacking the desired abstract or metaphorical quality.
Fix — Frame concepts like "data potential" or "team collaboration" using abstract shapes or gentle human figures rather than direct representations.
✗ The overall mood feels sterile or overly corporate, not friendly.
Fix — Inject warmth through lighting, soft shapes, and descriptions of a welcoming environment in the prompt.

Frequently asked questions

Q.Can I use this for non-admin console empty states, like a user profile with no posts?

Yes, the core principles of visual consistency, encouraging tone, and brand palette application are adaptable. Adjust the "Specific Sections" constraint to match your content types, focusing on the implied narrative for those particular empty states.

Q.How flexible is the `design_style` variable? Can I describe something very specific?

The design_style variable is highly flexible. You can input detailed descriptions like "neo-brutalist digital collage with halftone textures" or "minimalist flat vector art, gradient shadows." Specificity helps the AI maintain coherence across the set.

Q.What if my brand palette has many colors? Should I include them all?

It's best to select 3-5 primary and accent colors from your brand palette for empty states. Listing too many can lead to visual clutter or the AI struggling with color hierarchy. Focus on key brand identifiers.

Q.How do I ensure the "gentle encouragement" comes through without text?

Describe elements like upward-pointing arrows, open doors, growing plants, subtle smiles on abstract figures, or light sources that suggest progress and positivity. The composition itself should convey invitation and potential.

Q.Will this work for B2B applications, or is it more suited for consumer apps?

This approach is well-suited for B2B applications, especially those with admin interfaces. The focus on clarity, brand consistency, and user guidance is critical in professional tools. The design_style can be adjusted to match a corporate aesthetic.

Q.What if I need more than four empty states? Do I just add more sections?

Yes, you can extend the "Specific Sections" list to include additional empty states. Just ensure each new section has a distinct visual concept and that the overall style and color consistency are maintained across all prompts.

Q.The output sometimes includes unwanted graphical elements. How do I prevent this?

Refine your prompt by explicitly stating what *not* to include, or by simplifying your descriptions. For example, if "data points" lead to complex charts, try "abstract representations of growth" instead. Precision in positive terms often works best.

Version 1.0Last reviewed August 6, 2026

Reviewed by PromptInFlow Editorial Team