General Error Message
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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 examples of good error messages the company Business Learn more about hiring developers or posting ads with us User generic error message for website Experience Questions Tags Users Badges Unanswered Ask Question _ User Experience Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for user experience friendly error messages examples researchers 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 error message examples text What is 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
Generic Error Meaning
to determine the 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
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 company Business http://stackoverflow.com/questions/194537/how-does-one-write-good-error-messages Learn more about hiring developers or posting ads with us Stack Overflow Questions Jobs Documentation Tags Users Badges Ask Question x Dismiss Join the Stack Overflow Community Stack Overflow is a community of 4.7 million programmers, just like you, helping each other. Join them; it only takes a minute: Sign up How does one write good error messages? up vote 36 down vote favorite 19 While this is more of a written language issue than error message a coding one, it is something that programmers must do in circumstances where copy is not provided by a client or someone else. Any examples of error messages, good or bad, are welcome to make the point. I briefly searched and could not find a dupe thread. Ok, have at it. Thanks, all. usability custom-errors share|improve this question edited May 2 '12 at 10:33 Mr Lister 25k85381 asked Oct 11 '08 at 20:05 MrBoJangles 6,014134568 error message examples 1 @[Thohan]: just create a boy-scout tag ;-) –Steven A. Lowe Oct 15 '08 at 16:35 1 Check out this guide from Microsoft, comes with examples and best practices. –user509209 Nov 16 '10 at 7:46 add a comment| 16 Answers 16 active oldest votes up vote 25 down vote Apologise. Say what went wrong. Say how to resolve it. Be polite. The message should be worded so that the application accepts responsibility for the problem. Never blame or criticize the user or make them think it's their fault. Example: "Sorry, the file could not be opened. Please check that the file is not already opened by another program and try again." If there are additional details that would scare the user such as an error number or something else only a developer would understand, don't show them. Write them to a log file, or have a details button that can be pressed to get to them. I'm assuming you're talking about showing error messages to users in message boxes or on screen. share|improve this answer edited Oct 11 '08 at 22:05 answered Oct 11 '08 at 20:35 Scott Langham 28.1k2493149 3 Don't overdo the obsequiousness. How does a user check that a file is not already opened by another program? I really hate alert messages that force me to