information displayed when an unexpected condition occurs, usually on a computer or other device
248
votes
14answers
28k views
Should error messages apologize?
We are having a discussion on our team about an error message that says "Sorry, you do not have permission to access this feature. Please contact your administrator for assistance."
Is it ...
47
votes
13answers
5k views
What is best practice for designing form error messages?
I've seen quite a lot of research on form design, but so far, I haven't come across any studies on error message design best practices. The only piece of advice seems to be that each error should ...
38
votes
14answers
1k views
How do I get users to read error messages?
If your intended audience is nontechnical you find yourself at a severe risk that your users will plain ignore the carefully worded error messages, either staring in shock at them, calling and yelling ...
35
votes
6answers
2k views
How can I highlight errors when bright red is the main color of the brand?
I'm working on a mobile website for a client whose main brand color is red. The website header and headings are all red. CTA buttons are red too. How can I effectively separate errors (mostly in form ...
26
votes
12answers
701 views
Blocking IE6: Deny outright or warn of issues?
We're looking at (finally) retiring IE6 support.
I've always been a big fan of graceful degradation but we're really pushing ahead and trying to embrace features that we're simply not going to want ...
21
votes
13answers
1k views
Is it better to prevent a forbidden action or display an error/explanation message?
There are multiple examples, so I'll pick a specific one to focus the question.
Let's say a user can have specific characteristics (or permissions):
Admin, Virtual, External, Financial, etc.
To ...
20
votes
4answers
10k views
How to create a useful 500 internal server error page
I'm trying to create a useful HTTP Error 500 Internal server error page and the recommendations I have found and the live examples I have stumpled upon use a very simple layout. They basically ...
16
votes
2answers
2k views
Is the color red really appropriate for form validation errors?
It seems to be taken for granted that the color red is appropriate to highlight errors. In the case of serious system errors, I agree. However, I'm having doubts that it's the right choice for user ...
15
votes
6answers
621 views
What is the recommended wording for a generic error message
What would be the best wording for a generic error message?
With generic error message I mean a message for an error that has occured but there are no details on what the error is or how to recover ...
13
votes
2answers
690 views
Recommendations for good resources on writing good error messages
Writing good error messages which help users understand how to use the system is difficult. Often we get bug reports stating "Error message x is confusing" which usually sparks a long debate in the ...
12
votes
3answers
809 views
Best place for placement of error messages on a form (both generic and specific)
I'm working on a simple registration form which, when invalid data is entered, will display both a generic error (e.g: "There is an error on your form") and also specific errors (e.g: "This is not a ...
11
votes
3answers
774 views
Periods at the end of a sentence in alert message
How to classify what type of messages should've a fullstop/period and what should not?
Because there are certain error/warning/success/info messages (be it a dialog, banner, contextual or ones in a ...
10
votes
3answers
177 views
Should general 404 page be shown to the user if he clicks one-time link second time?
There is a Sign up function in a web application. After user signs up, an email message with confirmation link is sent to his email address. This confirmation link is obviously valid only one time.
...
10
votes
4answers
185 views
Name or data on this error alert phenomenon?
This is just a curiosity on my part, but I'm wondering if there's a name or studies for what I'm going to describe.
I've noticed in many UX scenarios, not just computer related, that when there's an ...
9
votes
4answers
402 views
Error message that always appears in the same place
Is it okay if error messages always appear in the same place on a website? I know the right thing to do is place errors inline, close to where the error occured. But there's hundreds of errors that ...
9
votes
3answers
240 views
Should we be optimistic or pessimistic with UI updates on AJAX requests?
We are discussing in our team how best to handle UI updates after a user does something to cause an AJAX request to the server.
Here are options we are considering:
Instantly update the UI and ...
8
votes
12answers
474 views
Bulk actions: what to do when not all items support an action
Picture the following scenario: user selects a bunch of items, and the 'bulk actions' box appears; user selects an action that not all items support (for one reason or another).
What do you do in ...
8
votes
5answers
624 views
What is the best way to display date validation errors?
I am performing date validation on several forms. This validation includes making sure a date does not fall on a weekend, does not fall on a major holiday, is at least 3 business days from the current ...
8
votes
3answers
283 views
When should a messagebox be used?
When I started in programming, there was a manual with a number of GUI guidelines. The input fields were color coded. For instance, a mandatory field would be yellow and an ordinary field would be ...
8
votes
3answers
389 views
Given CSRF protection, how can I deal with an extremely slow user?
We use a CSRF cookie on all of our forms that send data via HTTP POST. By default, the CSRF cookie out lives the session cookie by 2+ hours, in order to ensure it does not expire for users that still ...
8
votes
4answers
233 views
Is there ever a circumstance where the user should be notified of a user interface no-op?
The headline may be a bit confusing, so here's a web example (although this question is equally applicable to desktop applications):
I open up the same eBay listing in 2 separate tabs of my web ...
8
votes
3answers
170 views
If there is a known error in a feature should we warn our users or just turn off the feature?
In this example, Facebook Connect (technically Facebook Login) has an open bug that prevents IE8 users from connecting. It send error messages, and it isn't clear to users that the error is with ...
8
votes
1answer
237 views
How to handle out-of-range data in a realtime plot?
Background
I am working on real-time data acquisition and visualization software for a scientific measurement device. The software gathers data from the device, and plots the data in real time. Data ...
8
votes
1answer
209 views
Message Fade Timing
Sometimes one wishes to display a message for some time before removing it in some way (in my case fading). When implementing this idea, a problem arises: how long should the message remain fully ...
7
votes
6answers
880 views
Handling multiple “alert” popups ?
An iPad application we are building throws an alert window for various error conditions. We are considering building a custom UI for the alerts since the default alert window is fairly annoying. My ...
7
votes
5answers
2k views
Disabling submit-button until the user has completed the form
How do you think about disabling the submit-button until the user has completed the form or the required fields?
I find similar questions here on ux.se and somebody answered that the user will think ...
7
votes
4answers
653 views
Error-message to indicate invalid data has been entered?
Sorry for the subjective question....
I'm working on the micro-copy that appears on a web-form when a user submits invalid data: eg: invalid date/time. We've used inline validation and date time ...
6
votes
3answers
317 views
What errors should users never experience?
I have come up with this question for 2 reasons.
Not all errors can be avoided. For example login information which might cause program to throw unhanded exception if login information is not ...
6
votes
4answers
635 views
What will be the Best notifications and error messages?
As a UI architect, I am always wondering about the best format to display errors and notifications to users.
Which of the following examples is the best format?
Name is required
Name cannot be ...
6
votes
4answers
281 views
Should a confirmation of the style “Your message has been deleted” be green, yellow, red?
For success messages, I usually use green, for warnings yellow and for errors red. Now in the trash folder users can delete messages permanently and restore messages.
I got confused which color would ...
6
votes
7answers
236 views
How to communicate foreign key constraints in a business application?
I have a business app with various business forms where users edit data. When a user deletes a record - it shows "FK_ABC_AA.. constraint violated, etc."
I want to do better than that and tell the ...
6
votes
3answers
145 views
Feature is only available on newer device
Let's say you have a software feature that is only available on a newer browser, operating system, or physical mobile device. Some examples include:
A camera is required to upload photos in an app. ...
6
votes
1answer
687 views
Standardized (web) application error messages? [closed]
I'm in the middle of coding a bespoke CMS for a company and if there is one thing I hate it's coming up with good copy for "flash" messages (short messages that provide user feedback.)
I know how ...
6
votes
4answers
157 views
Partial success message when deleting items
In one of our applications, the user can select multiple items and delete as many of them as they wish in single click.
However, while processing this request there is some validation and ...
6
votes
2answers
111 views
When should the message informing the user that the password they entered is wrong go away?
This is a follow up to this question since it got closed. In a log in form, after the user enters the wrong password, when should the message saying "wrong password or user name" go away? For example ...
6
votes
2answers
167 views
Question mark in alert's caption
My doubt might seems a bit silly, but still...
Should the caption of an alert/prompt popup have question mark at the end?
For example, let's say that I have to issue a prompt to as for confirmation ...
6
votes
3answers
546 views
How to display login/register errors?
I have a login form and a register form on my website in this format:
Username: [ ]
Password: [ ]
Email: [ ]
There are multiple ways to approach informing the user of ...
5
votes
4answers
226 views
Should I show the Bank name as a user enters a routing number?
So I'm building a payment interface, and we allow customers to pay with Checking or Savings accounts by entering their 'routing number' and 'account number'. The routing number is an identifier that's ...
5
votes
5answers
1k views
Is red text ever acceptable for use in non-error content?
I've always gone by the rule that red text should only be used in displaying error messages. Can anyone show me any usability blog/book excerpts that prove or disprove this rule? What are your own ...
5
votes
3answers
131 views
What to display in mobile app web view when the URL won't load
I'm creating an app whose UI is simply a web browser that loads a URL. Let's not argue about why I'm implementing it this way (I already tried that with the higher-ups). It can still do the background ...
5
votes
4answers
376 views
How do I best tell a user that his/her account will be locked if they enter the wrong credentials too many times?
We are going to add an additional layer of security to our product by locking user accounts for a short period of time (configurable in the product, but probably 5-10 minutes) when a user has tried to ...
5
votes
2answers
329 views
What image and message use in the “Not found” page (404 error page) [closed]
I've seen the robot of Google, the creature that has Github. I think that is question of imagination and what kind of data manages your web app to design a custom image and the message to show to the ...
5
votes
1answer
215 views
Best way to handle a system failure (not the user's fault)
In my application, we're very dependent on a service to provide some information that the user can interact with. It's possible that the service could be down, or in some invalid state to where any ...
5
votes
2answers
171 views
Error dialog for several parallel operations
I have a situation that I'm not sure how to handle, UI wise.
Our program initiates several parallel and threaded operations. Each of these operations can fail thus requiring an error dialog. The ...
4
votes
4answers
676 views
Best error message to display when too many users logging onto web system
I have a website that started experiencing issues when too many people are trying to log into the website at the same time (usually at the start of the business day). Are there some examples of or ...
4
votes
3answers
225 views
Turn 403s into 404s?
I am currently working on a web application where there are different levels of access. Users can get access to some areas of the application, but may not be allowed to access another area.
The ...
4
votes
2answers
171 views
How should removed pages be handled in e-commerce sites?
On my e-commerce website I create many sale event/campaign related categories which are put offline after a specific event/campaign is over. Lots of customers bookmarks those category page and then ...
4
votes
3answers
184 views
validation message placement
Is it better to have the validation message next to the label or the control?
download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups
Update:
To be clear, I'm not referring to ...
4
votes
3answers
132 views
How do I inform the user a component has stopped working?
This is my design challenge:
The idea is to have a separate component integrated into a website, displaying data retrieved from another system.
When a problem occurs with this other system, we are ...
4
votes
2answers
291 views
Error Message Advice (for asynchronous/background tasks)
We have a web application which currently performs a number of intensive, time-consuming tasks. The initial design didn't really cope with the levels of information we're now dealing with and we're ...
