From f987e94fedf2c831b29978d7a978a1ff3f230f22 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Eric Gullickson <16152721+ericgullickson@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2026 20:02:56 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] chore: verify notification bell functionality and improve
 empty state (refs #180)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 .../notifications/components/NotificationBell.tsx         | 8 ++++++--
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/frontend/src/features/notifications/components/NotificationBell.tsx b/frontend/src/features/notifications/components/NotificationBell.tsx
index ba905c0..d636ed8 100644
--- a/frontend/src/features/notifications/components/NotificationBell.tsx
+++ b/frontend/src/features/notifications/components/NotificationBell.tsx
@@ -130,8 +130,12 @@ export const NotificationBell: React.FC = () => {
             <CircularProgress size={24} />
           </Box>
         ) : notifications.length === 0 ? (
-          <Box sx={{ p: 3, textAlign: 'center' }}>
-            <Typography color="text.secondary">No notifications</Typography>
+          <Box sx={{ p: 4, textAlign: 'center' }}>
+            <NotificationsIcon sx={{ fontSize: 40, color: 'text.disabled', mb: 1 }} />
+            <Typography color="text.secondary" fontWeight={500}>No notifications</Typography>
+            <Typography variant="caption" color="text.disabled">
+              You're all caught up
+            </Typography>
           </Box>
         ) : (
           <List sx={{ py: 0, maxHeight: 360, overflow: 'auto' }}>