Error Messages For Web Application
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Message Box In Web Application
Unanswered Ask Question _ User Experience Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for user experience researchers and experts. Join them; it web error messages best practice only takes a minute: Sign up Here's how it works: Anybody can ask a question Anybody can answer The best answers are voted up and rise to the top Standardized (web) application error messages? [closed] up vote 7 web design error messages down vote favorite 1 I'm in the middle of coding a bespoke CMS for a company and if there is one thing I hate it's coming up with good copy for "flash" messages (short messages that provide user feedback.) I know how important it is to provide good feedback to the user when a system breaks but as a programmer it's a right pain because I think in technical terms and it's very hard to effectively communicate
Web Server Error Messages
what I want to say in layman's terms whilst simultaneously keeping it short, concise and polite. Of course, there are a myriad of ways an application can go wrong, it's different for almost every project and internationalization/localization are also big issues. So I was wondering if are there any resources out there that attempt to provide a standard library of feedback messages? Or if not would you be interested in a community driven project such as this? error-message feedback share|improve this question asked Mar 8 '11 at 10:02 rich97 13813 closed as not constructive by Ben Brocka♦ May 20 '12 at 20:24 As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, visit the help center for guidance.If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question. 1 You mean technical implementation or a set of error texts? –Nikita Prokopov Mar 8 '11 at 14:31 What's wrong with "An error has occurred. Please try again later"? –Charles Boyung Mar 8 '11 at 20:28 1 @Charles Boyung "An error has occurred..." is just echo of nin
on our websites. And they happen in real life. Sometimes it’s because we made a mistake. Or maybe a system failed. Maybe it really was the user’s fault. Whatever website error messages the cause, these errors—and how they are communicated—can have a huge impact on the way funny website error messages someone experiences your website or app. Often overlooked, an ill-constructed error message can fill users with frustration, and send them packing. A
Verizon Messages Web App
well-crafted error message, on the other hand, can work wonders. It can turn a moment of frustration (abandonment) into a moment of delight (and ideally, conversion). Every error, regardless of who is to blame, becomes a http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/3965/standardized-web-application-error-messages point of friction for your users. Well-written error messages can help reduce that friction. As UX designers, we like to reduce friction. So let’s get on with it. Introducing the 4 H’s So how do we write, or rewrite, our error messages to keep our users on track? It’s not that difficult, really. We just need to consider the 4 H’s of writing error messages. Error messages need to be: Human Helpful http://uxmas.com/2012/the-4-hs-of-writing-error-messages Humorous Humble Let’s look at these more closely. 1. Human The number one rule is to make sure your error messages sound like they’ve been written for humans. There’s nothing more frustrating than an error like this one. It sounds like it has been written by a robot. For a robot. Put your customer service hat on—think of your error message as a conversation with your user. Make sure it’s polite, understandable, friendly and jargon-free. The Firefox error message is a better example. Think about your audience. How would you explain the error to them, in human speak? Write those words down. That’s your error message, right there. 2. Helpful OK, so your error message is readable. But is it helpful? The rules to crafting helpful error messages are fairly straightforward. Ask yourself: Is it visible? There’s no point displaying an error message if the user doesn’t even see it. Think about the message size, colour and location of your error messages. Make them prominent. Does it explain clearly what went wrong? Your error message needs to explain the problem as clearly as possible. And it needs to be specific. A vague error message that says, “An unexpected system error has occurred” is just lazy programming. It’s of no use to anyone. And most imp
now I'm making a list of all the shapes these messages can take in an interface. I've come up with 5 approaches and I'm thinking about where/when they're appropriate, for which types of messages and scenarios, and how they https://www.sitepoint.com/community/t/types-of-error-messages-and-notifications-in-web-apps/57405 might not be a good idea sometimes. here is my list so far: 1) the notification area used accross the app, always in the same part of the interface, usually somewhere at the top. Here is an example. 2) contextual messages, for instance next to a form field that's causing the problem (see this article) 3) modal windows 4) browser dialog boxes 5) growl type of message : they pop up in one area of error message the screen (as opposed to an area of the interface), hence overlaying some of the interface. They either pop up and dissapear by themselves or they wait for the user to close them. Example here. My questions are : have you identified other forms of notifications? do you know any good online resources about this topic? how do you personally feel about browser dialog boxes in web apps? I find them terribly annoying most of website error messages the time, and I wonder if it's just me Thanks in advance for your thoughts vigneshr35 2010-05-12 10:29:33 UTC #2 Hi, To start with, good work and a nice research. Have some questions first up : By growl type of message, you say that some part of the interface is overlayed right? Does overlay mean that no further operation can be done with that part of the interface ? Are modal window and growl type similar? If not what is the difference between them ? Is it possible to show me an example of the modal window type? Coming to the browser dialog boxes, I assume it is the 'alerts' that come up. And I agree with totally in your saying that they are particularly very annoying. Raphaelle 2010-05-12 10:58:56 UTC #3 Hi vigneshr35, I guess the big difference between growl-like messages and modal windows is that in the first case one's able to ignore the message and carry out some other task, whereas a modal window is usually more "in your face" : it's often displayed in the middle of the screen with the rest of the interface greyed out. Some modal windows let you interact with the rest of the interface but I think that's fairly rare. In both cases, the notification may overlap some of the content of the pag