Archive for the 'Errors' Category

Making Clear Error Messages

February 15th, 2008 Comments(0)

Explaining errors is one of the basic concepts in usability for the web. It is as simple and obvious as telling the user what was wrong and how to solve that problem.

"It is important that error messages are clear…"

There are many ways of explaining errors, like going back to the web form marking the erroneous fields. It is important that error messages are clear, avoid things like "error 4055".

Digg Error Message

 

Digg, the social bookmarking website, displays from time to time an error message at the end of the submission procedure. I don’t really know why this happens because the error message is not clear, no solution is proposed and there is no entry about that on the FAQ section. The user experience could not be worse in this situation.

See previous entries about this topic.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Better User Experience With Meaningful Errors Messages

January 18th, 2008 Comments(0)

Giving users meaningful error messages is very important but, maybe, even more important to improve the user experience is to provide a solution to the error that is rising the error message.

"Give always an explanatory error message…"

It is very frustrating for users to get error messages and no way to solve the problem. Give always an explanatory error message and include in your design an obvious way to keep on with the process.

Lufthansa Ticket Reservation Message

 

Lufthansa, the airline, gave me the other day an example of poor web design. After choosing a flight I got the option to enter my frequent flyer username and password. The system didn’t recognize my username and asked me to "Create new user profile". Well, there was NO "Create new user profile" link on that page.

Lufthansa Detail Error Message

 

Improve usability and user experience with a web design that avoids error messages that tell the users that she was wrong and don’t provide solutions. More Design vs Art articles about error messages.

Popularity: 11% [?]

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