Creating React skeleton screens involves developing placeholder previews that are shown while content is loading, improving perceived performance and enhancing user experience. Skeleton screens provide users with a glimpse of what to expect, often by rendering shapes that approximate the layout of the yet-to-load content, such as grey boxes for images or shimmering lines for text.

To implement these in React, developers typically use lightweight, flexible components that can easily adapt to the varying structures of the actual content. These components are often styled with CSS to mimic the dimensions and basic shapes of the content they represent. Developers can also use animation effects, such as pulsing or a “shimmer” effect, to indicate that content is in the process of loading. By learning to create skeleton screens, developers can make their React applications feel faster and more responsive, providing visual cues that help maintain user engagement during data fetching operations.