Questions tagged [error-message]

information displayed when an unexpected condition occurs, usually on a computer or other device

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13 votes
7 answers
702 views

Should an 'error message' be shown before or after user interaction?

In a web application we have functionality that enables users to reschedule an appointment that they have previously booked, by clicking on a call to action/link on their summary page. However, there ...
Midas's user avatar
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8 votes
2 answers
24k views

What would be a user-friendly error message for HTTP request timeout?

We have a HTTP request timeout implemented in our mobile app, and we display an error popup when the response doesn't come on time (we will put the timeout somewhere between 30 and 60 seconds). I ...
jakub.g's user avatar
  • 181
3 votes
2 answers
1k views

Displaying multiple validation messages

Let's say my password field has the following validations (not limited to) on my Sign Up form, Password length should be 6-12 characters. Password must contain at least 1 number. Password must ...
nuwa's user avatar
  • 2,858
1 vote
5 answers
2k views

Best place to display error message in the page?

Need to place error message. (also info message, success message) on page submission. or any error occurrence on the page. Problem statement - Right now, in the layout if we show the error message on ...
Sunil kv's user avatar
  • 431
1 vote
2 answers
67 views

Positioning and using a prompt / instruction / error line?

I'm working on a complex GUI where new users are common and so there is a line that either gives instructions, prompts you with information after you select a button that causes a reaction, or prompts ...
Nicole Dombi's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
107 views

Handing Maximum Limit of Object Creation in Nested Object Form

Assume a scenario where you can multiple projects under each course object. There is a nested object creation form like the one below Given the maximum limit of 5 Projects. Which is a better scenario ...
Brighton Vino's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

Duration of alert messages/notifications

From my understanding, alert messages/notifications should not just disappear after a certain amount of time for accessibility reasons - some people may require more time to read them so they should ...
J Bo's user avatar
  • 1,394
0 votes
2 answers
236 views

Providing feedback on copy / paste functionality

I'm working on a set of applications, one of which is a JS based web app, and the other of which is a desktop standalone application. Due to security issues, browsers won't allow users to copy to ...
YoungForch's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
3k views

How to illustrate a "saved, but incomplete" state

Right now I have a form that is broken into multiple sections. Beside the form, there is a sidebar with a list of every section's name. Each section will experience 5 states: unsaved edit(s) ...
invot's user avatar
  • 1,456
24 votes
3 answers
3k views

When is an exception message too big?

I'm testing a web app that has a cumbersome exception message for attempting to add non-eligible invoices to a payment system, see the image below. The developer sees no issue with this but its ...
Mike D's user avatar
  • 241
4 votes
1 answer
1k views

HP's "PC LOAD LETTER" UX fiasco - how did they allow it? how to prevent similar issues in the future? [closed]

I'm sure that users would think: My HP Laserjet says "PC LOAD LETTER" and refuses to print. Is there something wrong with my PC (Personal Computer)? Do I need to LOAD a program? Is this an ...
Aaron Hall's user avatar
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4 votes
2 answers
1k views

Are there any rules to differ between Errors, Warnings and Notifications? [duplicate]

I am looking for any rules to give developers how they can differ between Errors, Warnings and Notifications. I haven't found something in literature or the web. Is there a standard that needs to be ...
mkoller's user avatar
  • 41
2 votes
3 answers
834 views

Messaging After Submitting Form Where no Values Have Changed

What is the best messaging for when a user submits a form to update some fields e.g. such as in a user profile, etc. but no values were changed. In my situation, nothing gets updated in the DB when ...
GWR's user avatar
  • 1,479
11 votes
5 answers
4k views

How do I manage form validation for either/or fields

I have a form in which there the user is required to enter either a postal code OR select a city in order to do a search. If they fail to enter either and submit the form, currently the form ...
Kate Lewis-Buckley's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
686 views

How to position page-level error message?

User fills out this page and hits Save. The page has multiple errors, some on Tab one, others on Tab two. What's the best way to present a page-level error message explaining that user should ...
Brian1850's user avatar
12 votes
3 answers
19k views

Reset password, appropriate response if email doesn't exist?

It is common on login forms to see "Email or password is incorrect" when the user types in their account details incorrectly instead of just "password is incorrect". This is, for among other reasons, ...
DasBeasto's user avatar
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3 votes
2 answers
206 views

App for wearable device: disconnect notification

I'm designing an app for a wearable device which is connected to the phone over bluetooth. The app more or less can't do anything without a device being connected. When launching the app, the first ...
Alex I's user avatar
  • 211
2 votes
3 answers
5k views

What are some unique ways to say "no data available"?

What is a good message to put for "No data available"?, Currently I include something as below. Is it good? to be specific the posts are in timeline format. I Include Sad Face on top of the ...
Farhad Nežad's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
135 views

How to display two different responses (together on the same screen) to a single request

I'm designing the interface for a software for digital signing (with legal value in Italy). The software has a function to verify if the sign is valid and I could have more than a single response. ...
panna's user avatar
  • 113
2 votes
1 answer
5k views

User friendly way to describe maximum byte length?

Imagine you have a form on a webpage where some lengths can only be a certain number of characters long, and you want to show the user a friendly error message. Best animal [_crocodile__] *ERROR: The ...
jlarson's user avatar
  • 897
5 votes
4 answers
4k views

Is it important to display HTTP error codes to users?

On a 404 or 403 page, should we include the error code or can the page be written and designed better for UX without it?
Amelia Schmidt's user avatar
4 votes
5 answers
8k views

Should an "unsaved changes" dialog in a web app contain a "save" option?

When a user makes some changes in a web app and tries to navigate away without saving them, a dialog appears as a confirmation/warning message. There are two approaches to these dialogues. Sometimes ...
Vitaly Mijiritsky's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
4k views

"An unexpected error occured"

I know this is more language problem, but in many applications there is a text "unexpected error occurred". How do you get the sense (in context of UX) of this information? It makes me feel that the ...
Voitcus's user avatar
  • 471
1 vote
1 answer
62 views

What are common interaction animations for error

Working on the error message system for checkout on an app. I've decided to use a simple skinny bar just below the main header to notify the user if something went wrong. however when it appears the ...
Blue Ocean's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
153 views

Choice of color - logo, scheme matches with error message color

Most often than not, the scheme of the website has to match that of the logo. When the logo has a RED, on a page it becomes unavoidable not to have a RED colored alerts, warnings, error messages ...
emeralddove's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
131 views

Persisting form field error messages in a fixed header

I'm currently redesigning an onboarding flow and i've come to this question with an engineer about designing an error message form field box that persists in our fixed header. This would of course be ...
I30b0's user avatar
  • 51
1 vote
3 answers
256 views

Why should I provide an undo error message?

I've noticed a trend where a few services are starting to implement an "Undo" Button within messages, providing the possibility to undo the last interaction. When deleting an email in gmail for ...
uxfelix's user avatar
  • 1,880
2 votes
2 answers
87 views

Phrasing a technical error in most clear way possible: XML config file not properly formatted

I’m developing a program for a group of scientists. The requirements are that user input will be given in the form of an XML configuration file. Also the requirements state that an XSD file will be ...
Celeritas's user avatar
  • 1,365
3 votes
5 answers
3k views

What's the best way to show multiple errors associated with a table row?

After loading some files I get a table that looks like the following: The picture above shows that 49 rows were processed, of which 33 are okay, 8 have warnings and 8 have errors. Now, each rows with ...
Skizzo's user avatar
  • 481
2 votes
1 answer
210 views

If a user has created an account on my iOS app using Google, how should I handle their effort to also create an email account?

Imagine a user logged into my iOS app using their Google account. Months later, they are trying to create an account using their email address (the same one connected to their previous Google social ...
Sergi's user avatar
  • 21
3 votes
2 answers
253 views

Presenting error to a user in OS X in Popover View

I've been developing applications for iOS for a long time, now I am making application for OS X. My application is an agent. My application is a popover from OS X menu in the top of the screen. I need ...
Nikita Zernov's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
120 views

Would an item list be better than a wall of text in this error message?

Consider the error message: I am surprised that Google decided to have it this way because I assume that people wouldn't rather be eager to read nine lines of text with no typography (nothing ...
d33tah's user avatar
  • 345
1 vote
1 answer
134 views

What is the best way to convey duplicate content or task already exists message?

App context is a simple todo task app. So, what would be the best way to convey to the user the task already exists on the list? Basically, I want to keep the message and prompt as humorous and less ...
exexzian's user avatar
  • 1,206
18 votes
8 answers
4k views

Should I provide errors when client-side validation was bypassed?

I have a form. My JS confirms the field values are valid before the form can be submitted. If invalid, it is highlighted red, focused, and given a tooltip with the reason. Moreover, the Javascript ...
Mooseman's user avatar
  • 285
5 votes
6 answers
820 views

How to display errors with single LED?

I am working on a tiny hardware device which has a single LED that can be used to display errors (there are no other outputs). Actually it is a tri-color LED but the red color is dedicated to errors. ...
Alex I's user avatar
  • 211
4 votes
2 answers
5k views

How should I present an error message to iOS users?

I'm working on an iOS 8 iPhone app and I'm looking for a way to present an error message to the user like You're offline, please check your network settings. that goes away after a few seconds. What ...
Thomas's user avatar
  • 43
6 votes
2 answers
5k views

Whats the best way to show an error in a specific field in table? Example: Errors on a single row where some of the column is a form field

Example: Errors on a single row where some of the column is a form field.
Sknny's user avatar
  • 1,332
15 votes
3 answers
8k views

Form validation - When should error messages be triggered?

I'm working on a registration form with real-time inline validation. I'm wondering when we should trigger error messages: before, when the field is in focus and until the user has entered a valid ...
user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
167 views

Where should we tell the customer that the item in their cart cannot be shipped where they live?

Since we do not know where the user lives until after they have added the item that cannot be shipped to where they live, and then entered their ship location, I would love to see examples or ideas ...
KenBrian's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
1k views

Error messages / alert boxes on wide screens

I'm reworking a web app UI to take advantage of wider screens and I have a niggle I can't shake. There are many tables throughout the app for which a wider screen is advantageous. Above the tables I ...
JimmyP's user avatar
  • 141
0 votes
1 answer
553 views

What are the resources for list of error messages in case of failed transaction on eCommerce website? [closed]

Being the only UX guy in my company, my management wants me to write error messages for their customers. Dev team is really very very bad when it comes to writing and they will just say ...
Guru Munishwar's user avatar
4 votes
4 answers
8k views

Pop-up vs In-page Error messages

I am trying to determine what would be the most effective method of notifying a user that some of the fields they have filled out on the online form is invalid or required. The form itself is to ...
IronBasset's user avatar
  • 1,157
19 votes
7 answers
4k views

Is it worth having custom 404 pages for different features of a web app?

We've seen a lot of beautiful custom error pages for server errors such as 404 and 503, but it seems like each site or app has just has one for whatever page you cannot reach. Is it in anyway ...
sambert's user avatar
  • 195
4 votes
2 answers
111 views

"Invalid" vs. "Not Recognized" (vs. other?)

Let's say that we have a form which asks the user for some sort of tracking code for a package. So the user enters 33763, but there is no package with code 33763 in the system. As we always do, we ...
musicin3d's user avatar
  • 141
4 votes
1 answer
545 views

What are the most common mistakes people make when entering their e-mails in a form?

I want to write some quite specific error messages for an e-mail form field in order for people to find out what they did wrong more quickly. – What are the most common mistakes people make when ...
Tony Bolero's user avatar
  • 7,304
1 vote
1 answer
164 views

What to do when (phone) storage is full?

My team is working on a (phone) app which continually logs data to the internal storage or SD card. This data is periodically sent to a server. (No worries - this is not spyware, and the users are ...
Frank Kusters's user avatar
45 votes
10 answers
8k views

Is it OK to autocorrect users when they have mistyped parts of their email address?

When logging in, users might mistype parts of their email address. For example, [email protected] instead of .com, Yaho instead of yahoo, etc. The main rationale is that by autocorrecting user input ...
Okavango's user avatar
  • 7,026
7 votes
5 answers
1k views

Should a user be prevented from making an invalid selection or denied with an error message after the fact?

In my UI, there is an icon for ‘Open File’. When user clicks this icon, a normal file browser window opens. The user selects a file by browsing through the computer. The user should only select ...
Ayse's user avatar
  • 698
0 votes
2 answers
18k views

Bad error message for required field: "Please enter value"

I just watched someone struggle with a form. The form was part of a normal online shop. It had reloaded after submitting, annotating the required field for the phone number with a red text above, ...
Volker Siegel's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
573 views

What is the good wording and place for file size error message? [closed]

What would be a good wording and place on the form for file type error message? I am especially interested in the case when a user may not understand clearly the difference between file types.
Ardine's user avatar
  • 101

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