Most Useless Error Messages
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Messages of All Time They're rarely helpful. Actually, they usually add insult to injury. But what would computing be without 'em? funny computer error messages Herewith, a tribute to a baker's dozen of the best (or funny error messages generator is that worst?). By Harry McCracken | Thursday, September 18, 2008 at 5:28 am "To err is human, funny real error messages 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 funny error text messages is that they-or, more specifically, the people who program them-get so many things so very wrong. Hence the need 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
Scariest Error Messages
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. 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 appe
Speak Next Search Search for: 4 Common Mistakes With Error Messages (and How to Fix Them) By: Alex Birkett Your users will make mistakes. It’s inevitable. That’s what error
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messages are for - but so many companies are doing them poorly, and error message text they’re pissing off potential customers in the process. So, how can we better design error messages to increase user error message examples experience, and therefore, increase conversions? Error Message Errors and How They Affect UX Error messages can be so frustrating. How many times have you went to fill out a form to create http://www.technologizer.com/2008/09/18/errormessage/ an account, only to receive a message like this: It's the type of thing that makes you want to drop what you're doing and break something, right? Another terrible experience is when an error message is ambiguous, probing you to ask, “well, why was that wrong?!” Craig Sullivan has a great example about Amazon: OK, @AmazonUK - here is the picture. Tell me WHY, instead http://conversionxl.com/error-messages/ of this useless error message - stop WASTING my time : pic.twitter.com/h33ofvFr0T — Craig Sullivan (@OptimiseOrDie) December 7, 2015 Error messages trigger cortisol, a well-known biomarker of psychological stress. This cortisol buildup can turn into anxiety, and eventually, when a user is sufficiently frustrated, they give up. Image Source (via Brian Cugelman) Sometimes, the damage isn’t only sustained to the lost conversion, but it also turns someone into an active detractor of your brand. Investing in a better user experience tends to work in the short term (increased conversion rate) as well as the long term (increased retention, brand loyalty, word-of-mouth, etc). While error messages seem like a dry topic compared to value proposition optimization or gamification, you can vastly improve your user experience just by avoiding a few common mistakes. A Case Study in Poor Error Message Design Ever booked a flight with Spirit Airlines? It's not the best customer experience (to put it lightly). It warmed my heart to note that their error messages were also subpar. So I started out my form by messing up everything (I'm not a savvy digital citizen): Uh-oh, I didn't inform the
Answers Julie Blodgett, I answer a lot of basic computer fix questions, but I also dabble in minding ...Written 169w agoOne I can't fix https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-most-useless-computer-error-message myself. LOL I usually just use a software to fix most my computer errors for me. I know .dll errors are common if you haven't installed a program correctly. You should probably uninstall it and re-install it, but before you do anything, you should just restart your computer. When you do, most problems just go away. Fix DLL Errors | error message PCHealthBoost.com373 ViewsRelated QuestionsMore Answers BelowWhat are some of the strangest and amusing error messages?What is your favourite error message?What are some of the funniest Windows error messages you have ever seen?How are most software error messages generated?When did the trend of useless passive-voice error messages in software begin? Why does it persist? Samuel Teuber, Founder & CEO of QuissimWritten funny error messages 198w agoNo keyboard found, press F1 to continue.Yes this error message really exists i saw it one time myself...290 Views · View Upvotes Michael Jepsen, Senior Cognitive PsychologistWritten 123w agoAlmost all error messages are useless, so obviously it must be the most frequently given ones! ;-)303 Views Arthur Collé, NAPA at Goldman Sachs, founder at trophusWritten 274w agoI would say the ones where they give you a message with just "OK" and no "Cancel." Not much of a choice, eh?244 Views · View UpvotesView More AnswersRelated QuestionsWhat’s the most useful HTTP 404 Error Message page you’ve seen?What are some good examples of bad program error messages?When Microsoft says, "Send Error Message Report," is it worthwhile?What is the most "friendly" red hexadecimal color value for error messages?What are some of the best error messages?Error Messages: How do you make a fail page for a website?What is the most frictionless way of documenting all of my error messages when programming?Are most of the required courses in an undergraduate computer science program useless for real world programmer job applicability?A BI