Evolution of the Abort Page Design

Current Abort Page Useless “Click here to retry” link Lack of content: both consumers and merchants are left hanging 1% of all page views 3% of all visits

1% of all page views

3% of all visits

First Try

Headline Variations Sheesh — Our system goofed! Gremlins struck and carried away your data! Yuck! Our systems messed up big time! Oy vey! Your data gone — such a shame! Oh no! You’re not going to like this… Dude, you’re hosed — our bad.

Finally… Sorry — your last last action could not be completed Passive voice de-emphasizes that the responsibility for the error (customers know that) and emphasizes what’s most important to the customer – their transaction probably failed.

Sorry — your last last action could not be completed

Content – First Paragraph If you were making a purchase or sending money, we recommend that you check both your PayPal account and your email for a transaction confirmation after 30 minutes. Legally, this is the most important paragraph. If users get to the “Done” page of a transaction before arriving at the Abort page, they might get charged, and we need to caution them about that.

If you were making a purchase or sending money, we recommend that you check both your PayPal account and your email for a transaction confirmation after 30 minutes.

Then send them on their way If you came to this page from another website, please return to that site (don't use your browser's Back button) and restart your activity. If you came from PayPal's website, click the PayPal logo in the upper-left corner to return to our home page and restart your activity. You might have to log in again. We couldn’t specify how users should return to another website, due to the sheer number of ways they might have originally navigated to that site: Clicking a hyperlink with the e-commerce site URL as the target Clicking a button on some other site or in a widget embedded in a site, e.g., a Facebook application Clicking a link in an e-mail from a vendor Drilling down from within an online mall, like Yahoo Shops or eBay Shops.

If you came to this page from another website, please return to that site (don't use your browser's Back button) and restart your activity.

If you came from PayPal's website, click the PayPal logo in the upper-left corner to return to our home page and restart your activity. You might have to log in again.

Clicking a hyperlink with the e-commerce site URL as the target

Clicking a button on some other site or in a widget embedded in a site, e.g., a Facebook application

Clicking a link in an e-mail from a vendor

Drilling down from within an online mall, like Yahoo Shops or eBay Shops.

The Entire Message If you were making a purchase or sending money, we recommend that you check both your PayPal account and your email for a transaction confirmation during the next day. If you came to this page from another website, please return to that site (don't use your browser's Back button) and restart your activity. If you came from PayPal's website, click the PayPal logo in the upper-left corner to return to our home page and restart your activity. You might have to log in again. Sorry — your last last action could not be completed

If you were making a purchase or sending money, we recommend that you check both your PayPal account and your email for a transaction confirmation during the next day.

If you came to this page from another website, please return to that site (don't use your browser's Back button) and restart your activity.

If you came from PayPal's website, click the PayPal logo in the upper-left corner to return to our home page and restart your activity. You might have to log in again.