Error 'Mess'ages

Question: What is something that you face almost everyday, looks red, makes you feel sick and incapable, demerits your knowledge and makes you look like a stupid?

Answer: Simple….A Stupider Error Message Just see the following error message that I encountered today in Peoplesoft. Can you infer anything? Yes, unless you are a SQL geek, all you know is that something is wrong. You close the browser and try again sometime. (thats what I did exactly)

SQL error.Stmt#2 Error Position:) Return:8107 - [IBM] [CLI Driver] SQL30081N A Communication error has been detected. Communication protocol being used.: "TCP/IP". Communication API being used: "SOCKETS" Location where the error was detected: "10.237.50.61" Communication function detecting the er

So what could have been done to make your life easier?

Ok here are the thumb rules of a good error message

1. Avoid error scenarios if possible.
2. When there is an error, mention that in a clearly humanely understandable (No Jargons and Anti-Microsoft)
3. Provide an option for the user to go back to his previous state.
4. Help him to solve the problem.
5. Inform him whats wrong, when will it be fixed, what to do next.
6. Write error messages taking into account that the Developers are not the *ONLY* audience.

Eg., The same error message could have been rewritten as: —————————————————————————————————————————- Sorry! Unfortunately there is a temporary problem in the system. We are fixing it. Please log back again in 15 mts to access the system.

Thank you for your patience. —————————————————————————————————————————-

Also look at the Usability Guru's write up on this. There are some good takeways from his wisdom. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010624.html

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