Example User Friendly Error Messages
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on our websites. And they happen in real life. Sometimes it’s because we made a mistake. Or error message examples text maybe a system failed. Maybe it really was the user’s fault. Whatever
Error Messages Examples
the cause, these errors—and how they are communicated—can have a huge impact on the way someone experiences your
Error Messages Ux
website or app. Often overlooked, an ill-constructed error message can fill users with frustration, and send them packing. A well-crafted error message, on the other hand, can work wonders. It
Error Messages Best Practices
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 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 error message text 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 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
Start here for a quick overview of the site Help Center Detailed answers to any questions you might have Meta Discuss the workings and policies of this site About Us Learn more about Stack Overflow the good error message text company Business Learn more about hiring developers or posting ads with us User Experience error message list Questions Tags Users Badges Unanswered Ask Question _ User Experience Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for user experience researchers error message text prank and experts. Join them; it 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 What is http://uxmas.com/2012/the-4-hs-of-writing-error-messages the recommended wording for a generic error message up vote 36 down vote favorite 19 What would be the best wording for a generic error message? With generic error message I mean a message for an error that has occured but there are no details on what the error is or how to recover from it. It will be used exclusively as a fallback solution when it is not possible to determine the http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/39101/what-is-the-recommended-wording-for-a-generic-error-message error either because the server did not sent any additional details or there is a "probable" timeout... and other similar edge cases. It should be aimed to minimize the amount of frustration/anger. I've read a few threads but none of them seems to be 100% relevant Recommendations for good resources on writing good error messages Standardized (web) application error messages? [closed] This is actually a very close match but error reports are out of scope in my case What will be the Best notifications and error messages? Error Message Advice (for asynchronous/background tasks) Generic/vague error messages to pass to spammy users? copywriting error-message wording share|improve this question edited May 4 '13 at 13:32 JohnGB♦ 57.7k19154265 asked May 3 '13 at 15:11 Toni Toni Chopper 8821718 An unexpected error occurred... –Justin Meiners May 4 '13 at 0:07 add a comment| 9 Answers 9 active oldest votes up vote 39 down vote accepted A good error message should: Let you know what the problem is. Make you feel like there is something that you can do about it. Speak like a human, and be a consistent extension of the personality of the rest of the application. For generic error messages, you can't do much about the first point, but you can do something about the other two
tips Tips for a better website 4.251 subscribers Once a month Exclusive tips and special offers Fill out your email address * Please enter your email. http://www.agconsult.com/en/usability-blog/user-friendly-error-messages-7-tips User-friendly error messages: 7 tipsEls AertsGoogle+0 reactions Why are error messages important? A lot of websites make usability mistakes on their form pages. And that costs visitors. On a form https://www.nngroup.com/articles/error-message-guidelines/ page that's extra painful because if you lose a visitor there, you loose a very valuable visitor. A visitor who's willing to make the effort to get in touch with you error message or perhaps even to order something. A visitor who fills out a form (or tries to) is a visitor you should cherish. Here's a few tips. 1. Use the language of the form If the form is in English, the error messages should be in English. Sounds self-evident, I know. And on single-language websites this usually isn't a problem. But on error message text multi-language websites it often is. Error messages are often overlooked in the translation process. Make sure they aren't on your website. 2. Use understandable language Don't use code or words only programmers know the meaning of like "Customerrelation_gender_error" or "FieldT12empty". That's pretty much all I'm going to say about that one. 3. Be nice How hard is it to just be nice? The person filling out your form is a potential customer. If he forgets to fill out a field, say so nicely. 4. Be specific General error messages like "Fill out all the required fields" are an excellent way to scare off potential customers. An error message like "Invalid credit card" isn't exactly helpful either. Give the user more details about what went wrong and what he can do to fix it: "There was an error processing your credit card. Please check your name, credit card number, and card expiration date for correctness. Remember, these must match the card exactly.". The more specific your error message is, the easier it is for the user to fix the problem. 5. Don't
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