Bad Error Messages
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in the first place. We've all seen them, usually in very frustrating moments when our computer or website is not working properly. According to Jakob Nielsen good error bad error messages examples messages should: Clearly indicate that something has gone wrong Be in a human-readable language funny error messages Be polite and not blame the users Describe the problem Give constructive advice on how to fix the problem Be visible bad error 400 and highly noticeable, both in terms of the message and how it indicates where things went wrong Preserve as much of the user's work as possible so that they don't have to do everything
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over again If possible, guess the correct action and let users pick it form a list of fixes Educate users by providing links to pages with an explanation of the problem The following are examples of bad error messages to look and laugh at. The more ridiculous they seem to us, the less likely we will be us actually use them! "Valid authentication credentials were not provided" Hmm... I bad message for enemies wonder if that means my password is wrong? Um... is this a question? (this one was actually on an instructional design site trying to sell programming software) As good as Apple is about user interfaces, I've always wanted to ask someone on the original Mac OS team why they chose a picture of a bomb to put on their error message. Not the most friendly thing to see, especially after having just lost 2 hours of work because you hadn't been saving every 5 minutes! What is a "value state" I wonder? Maybe it's near Kansas. That's nice... can you show me the page now please? Oh, I see - Amtrak thinks I care enough about their bad programming to not use the "back" button on my browser Do you have a good (bad) error message? Send it to us by e-mailing info[at]wideopendoors.net Want to see more bad examples? The Isys Information Architects have a bunch of great windows dialog boxes and unintelligible error messages on their site. [add this example IE Only? Really Blockbuster? http://twitpic.com/1vygdh ] Usability Police http://www.buigallery.com/ Related Resources Website Templates Educational Software © 2015 Richard Culatta | Multiple domain web hosting provided by InnovativeLearning
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Server SQL Server BizTalk Server SharePoint Dynamics Programs & communities Students Startups Forums MSDN Subscriber downloads Sign in Search Microsoft Search Windows Dev Center Windows http://www.instructionaldesign.org/bad_error_messages.html Dev Center Explore What’s new for Windows 10 Intro to Universal Windows Platform Coding challenges Develop for accessibility Build for enterprise Windows Store opportunities Docs Windows apps Get started Design and UI Develop API reference Publish Monetize Promote Games Get started UI design Develop Publish Desktop Get started Design Develop https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn742471(v=vs.85).aspx API reference Test and deploy Compatibility Windows IoT Microsoft Edge Windows Holographic Downloads Samples Support Why Windows Dashboard Explore What’s new for Windows 10 Intro to Universal Windows Platform Coding challenges Develop for accessibility Build for enterprise Windows Store opportunities Docs Windows apps Get started Design and UI Develop API reference Publish Monetize Promote Games Get started UI design Develop Publish Desktop Get started Design Develop API reference Test and deploy Compatibility Windows IoT Microsoft Edge Windows Holographic Downloads Samples Support Why Windows Dashboard Design Guidelines Messages Messages Error Messages Error Messages Error Messages Error Messages Warning Messages Confirmations Notifications TOC Collapse the table of content Expand the table of content This documentation is archived and is not being maintained. This documentation is archived and is not being maintained. Error Messages An error message alerts users of a problem that has already occurred. By contrast, a warning messa
Messages of All Time They're rarely helpful. Actually, they usually add insult to injury. But what would computing be without 'em? Herewith, a tribute to a baker's dozen of the best http://www.technologizer.com/2008/09/18/errormessage/ (or is that worst?). By Harry McCracken | Thursday, September 18, 2008 at http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.17/17.12/Dec01CoverStory/index.html 5:28 am "To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer." So goes an old quip attributed to Paul Ehrlich. He was right. One of the defining things about computers is that they-or, more specifically, the people who program them-get so many things so very wrong. Hence the need error message for error messages, which have been around nearly as long as computers themselves.. In theory, error messages should be painful at worst and boring at best. They tend to be cryptic; they rarely offer an apology even when one is due; they like to provide useless information like hexadecimal numbers and to withhold facts that would be useful, like plain-English explanations of how to right want went wrong. bad error messages In multiple ways, most of them represent technology at its most irritating. In fact, people have an emotional attachment to many of them-like Proust's Madeleine, an error message from a machine out of your past can transport you back in time. That's a big part of why people form clubs to celebrate them, have them tattooed on their person, chronicle them for Wikipedia, and name albums after them. An entire company, the wonderfully-named Errorwear, exists to emblazon the images of such classic errors as the Blue Screen of Death (in four variations!), Guru Meditation, Red Ring of Death, and Sad Mac on T-shirts. And then there's this article-my stab at rounding up the major error messages of the past thirty years or so. I ranked them on a variety of factors, including how many people they bedeviled over the years, their aesthetic appeal or lack thereof, and the likelihood that they were notifying you of a genuine computing disaster. Your rankings probably differ from mine, which is why this story ends with a poll on the last page. Ready? Let's work through the list, starting with number thirteen and working our way up to the greatest error message of 'em al
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