How to make error messages less cryptic and more helpful for the end user. From a talk I gave at BarCampBrighton about best practices for handling Error Messages and FAILs more effectively in web applications and software UIs. In addition to making error messages more helpful and insightful, try delighting the user e.g Fail Whale.

1. Error Messages Can Be Fun.. 1

2. Make Error Messages Less Painful for the End User! 2

3. 3 Turning a bad thing into something delightful!

4. 4 Making FAIL more fun!

5. Cryptic Error Messages 5

6. 6

7. 7

8. 8

9. 9

10. Podcast retrieval returns cryptic error message. Post by Numberwang on Fri Jul 24, 2009 7:08 pm Hi, I've just recently discovered VLC and are gradually replacing other programs with it. Up until now I've been using 'Juice' as my podcast receiver but would like to replace it with VLC. However when I try retrieving podcasts on the podcast playlist I get this error message: http://imgur.com/z1tuf.jpg I have tried several different podcasts. It's all rather cryptic. Has anyone encountered similar problems? Any help would be great.Numberwang New Cone Posts: 3 Joined: Fri Jul 24, 2009 7:00 pm 10

11. Re: Podcast retrieval returns cryptic error message. PostbyVLC_help on Sat Jul 25, 2009 4:42 pm: Could you tell us one podcast URL you are trying to open? VLC_help Cone Master Posts: 10980Joined: Wed Sep 13, 2006 2:16 pm 11

12. 12 Post by Numberwang on Sun Jul 26, 2009 3:06 pm: http://pointofinquiry.libsyn.com/rss NumberwangNew Cone Posts: 3 Joined: Fri Jul 24, 2009 7:00 pm

13. VLC_help wrote: Yep. It doesn't work correctly. I added a feature request for this. https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/3003Cone Master Posts: 10980Joined: Wed Sep 13, 2006 2:16 pm Numberwang wrote: Great, thanks. Looking forward to it working in the future. Numberwang New Cone Posts: 3 Joined: Fri Jul 24, 2009 7:00 pm 13

14. Unhelpful Error Messages 14

15. 15

16. 16

17. 17 Difficult for most users to understand

18. 18 the impossible error

19. 19 Unhelpful/Cryptic error messages make the user feel stupid. “This is what all error messages feel like to users… No matter how nicely your error messages are worded, this is how they will be interpreted” Alan Cooper

20. 20 Helpful because it offers suggestions but too wordy

21. Name that error 21

22. 22

23. 23 Apache 404 Error

24. 24

25. Google Chrome 25

26. 26

27. 27 Mac OS X Kernel Panic

28. 28

29. the 256th level of Pac-Man 29

30. 30

31. 31 iPhone 3G

32. 32

33. Commodore AmigaOS 33

34. 34

35. AmigaOS version 4.0+ 35

36. http://www.errorwear.com 36

37. http://www.errorwear.com Embrace your computer problems. 37

38. 38

39. 39

40. 40

41. How to write good error messages 41

43. Tell the user how to fix whatever is wrong

46. 45 Better Still..Practice Poka-yoke - fail-safeing" or "mistake-proofing".

47. 46 Transmission: Can’t remove the car key when it’s inan unsafe state, when it’s prone to movement.

48. 47 3.5" floppy disks: the top-right corner is shaped in a certain way so that the disk cannot be inserted upside-down.

49. 48 High-security padlocks: it is impossible to remove the key unless it’s closed

50. 49 Microwave ovens: a door switch automatically disconnects the activation button when the door of the oven is opened

51. 50 Poka Yoke in Web Dev and Design Predictive Text Matches against results indicate popularity and the likelihood users will find a relevant result.

52. 51 Immediate feedback or inline messaging prior to form submission – passwords and validation Status and progress bars can reduce user frustration and minimize abandonment in shopping cards Asking users for confirmation before they perform important actions like delete. Visual queues of state changes on the page – inline AJAX confirmations.

53. Alan Cooper provides these three guidelines:Be PoliteNever forget that an error message box is the program reporting on its failure to do its job, and it is interrupting the user to do this. The error message box must be unfailingly polite. It must never even hint that the user caused this problem, because that is simply not true from the user's perspective. The customer is always right. 52

54. Be Illuminating The error message must illuminate the problem for the user. This means it must give them the kind of information they need to make an appropriate determination to solve the program's problem. It needs to make clear the scope of the problem, what the alternatives are, what the program will do as a default, and what information was lost, if any. The problem should treat this as a confession. 53

55. Be Helpful It is wrong for the program to just dump the problem on the user's lap and wipe its hands of the matter. It should directly offer to implement at least one suggested solution right there on the error message box. It should offer buttons that will take care of the problem in various ways. If a printer is missing, the message box should offer options for deferring the printout or selecting another printer. 54

56. 55 Be Delightful Delight the User by making your error or FAIL more fun!

57. 56

58. “Rather than being annoyed with GMail, and blaming Chrome,I am completely disarmed by this error. It makes me laugh!”..it reminds me that the developers working on this software took time to make their error messages not only user friendly, but fun.-a happy user 57

59. 58 How might we redesign this to be more user friendly?

61. Consider who the end user is

62. Consider the type of message

65. 62 Making FAIL More Fun

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67. 64

68. 65

69. 66

70. Errors and FAILS don’t have to be sad 67

71. They can be made happier andfriendlieror at least less painful for the end user. 68

72. Dawa Riley dawachan@gmail.com@dawachan Thank you 69