"Established wisdom holds that good error messages are polite, precise, and constructive. The Web brings a few new guidelines: Make error messages clearly visible, reduce the work required to fix the problem, and educate users along the way."

Jacob Neilson believes good error messages should include:

• Explicit indication that something has gone wrong


• Human-readable language


• Polite phrasing that doesn't blame users or imply that they are either stupid or doing something wrong


• Precise descriptions of exact problems


• Constructive advice on how to fix the problem


• Visible and highly noticeable, both in terms of the message itself and how it indicates which dialogue element users must repair


• Preserve as much as the user's work as possible.


• Reduce the work of correcting the error


• Hypertext links can be used to connect a concise error message to a page with additional background material or an explanation of the problem

Error Message Guidelines

Categorized: Design , User Experience

Tagged: , User Experience