This post is a continuation of a topic I began a few weeks back, about the cumulative impact that small, often overlooked interactions can have on the relationship between a company and their audience.

Earlier I discussed Thank You pages (see Optimizing the Thank You Page). Today I’ll briefly discuss error messages, cover some optimization basics, and examine two examples.

It’s True - Error Messages Always Come at a Bad Time

There’s a short story behind this saying. Once I was reviewing a potential client’s site with a colleague, and we triggered an error message while trying to use the product search functionality.

“Wow,” I commented. “Good-bye to that sale - that is not a good time to have an error message come up.” My colleague, who’s a bit of a smartass and hence shall remain nameless, smiled and replied, “You know, error messages always come at a bad time.”

Which is my long-winded way of pointing out that when a visitor gets an error, they’re not having fun on your site anymore. Their path was clear, their task was achievable, and now with no warning at all they’ve been thwarted in their ambition. Irritation sets in as they attempt to understand what happened, what to do next, and - most importantly from a business’s point of view - whether to continue trying at all.

And here, at this touch point, is your chance to make or break the relationship with that visitor.

The Message Might Be the Error

Visitors aren’t shocked when errors happen, it’s common enough on the web. Most will shake their heads and muddle through if given a clear, friendly direction. The point is, a decent error message can save - or even improve upon - your company’s relationship with the visitor. A poor error message, on the other hand, can completely trash that relationship, destroying trust and credibility.

Many error messages don’t even live up to common courtesy standards. Anyone remember this classic, from the 1996 era of browser battles?

“Your browser sucks! Get Navigator!

Pretty funny to developers, sure. But obviously not very likely to close a sale.

How Error Messages Become a Problem in the First Place

So, if it’s so obvious how important this is, why do so many sites have such rotten error messaging? Aren’t the site owners paying attention? Surely they didn’t approve those… right?

Probably not. And the blame falls on many shoulders.

Shoulder #1: The Developer Mindset

Most developers shouldn’t write public error messages, and to be honest most don’t want to. They get stuck with the task because they’re the only ones who know how to get the messages to display at the right time.

During my early years learning how to program, it took only one low project grade to teach me the value of good debugging messages. The messages I used were cryptic and highly personalized, meant to help me track the progress of a program’s test run and locate the point of failure in the code: “gonogo loop entered”, “success_count value now = x “, “charTwist function called”. Beautiful, aren’t they? Very helpful to me and possibly other programmers, but not very meaningful to anyone else.

This, then, is the mindset most developers bring to public-facing error messages, and why they shouldn’t write them: that error messages are meant to help the developer, not the site visitor.

Shoulder #2: The Site Development Process

How often is error messaging called out as an approval item during site development planning? Not often enough, judging by the evidence out there.

Partly it’s a problem of roles. We already decided that developers shouldn’t write error messages, so who should? Marketers? Content writers? A usability consultant? This should be determined and specified in the development plan.

Another part of the problem is the hidden quality of error messages. They’re part of a site’s dark underbelly, usually tucked away from the client’s eyes during reviews. Who sees them? The Quality Assurance team (assuming there is one) who probably don’t care how the message reads as long as it displays when it should. Oh, and actual site visitors, once the site goes live. This scenario could be avoided by treating error messages as legitimate site content that requires as much scrutiny as the home page copy.

Enough said. Let’s get to the guidelines, already! As usual, I present them alongside the visitor question or reaction the guideline is meant to address.

Guidelines for Error Message Optimization

Visitor Question
 OPTIMIZATION GUIDELINE
What is this new thing I’m seeing?
 First of all, make sure the error message CAN be seen. It should display in an obvious location and stand out against the page.Identify the message as an error message.”Error”, or “Oops!” work well, depending on your level of formality.
What just happened?
 Tell the visitor what occurred, or what is happening now. Be brief, descriptive, and clear. Don’t try to explain the inner details, just a summary.”…your account has been locked for your security.”
Did I do something wrong? Tone is important here. There’s no upside to blaming the visitor and reducing their confidence level. Take all the blame for the error, and apologize. Yes, maybe the visitor did something really stupid, but your site and pride should be able to handle it.”We’re sorry! Our calculator seems to be having a problem.”NOT: “You idiot! Don’t you know you’re not supposed to enter letters into a calculator?”
This is really annoying. You better be nice. Be human. Use human language. Keep it in the same general tone as your site, plus a tablespoon of helpfulness.Also: Look decent. Use a nice font and take a little time to format the message so it matches your site’s look and feel.
Are you paying attention to me?
 Reassure visitors that you’ve noticed this issue and are working to fix it. Ideally, of course, this is actually true - you have a solid error-reporting system in place and someone taking care of problems.”We’ve noted this problem and are working hard to fix it.”
What should I do now?
 Be specific about what action the visitor should take next, and make sure there’s a way for them to do it.One of my pet peeves is seeing a classic “…please contact the webmaster” message with no email link provided.”Try changing your search and try again.”
What if that doesn’t work? Provide an alternate path the visitor can take to achieve his or her goal, even if it means displaying (gasp!) a telephone number or email address. I know, it’s extreme.”If you still experience problems, we’re here to help. Call us toll-free at 1-800-xxx-xxxx and we’ll get things straightened out for you right away.”

Error Message Examples

Example #1 - Microsoft

I get this annoying message every time I forget and try to grab Windows updates using Firefox (my preferred browser).

Things to notice:

  1. No indication an error has happened. I suppose it’s not a real error then.
  2. No apology. Not too surprising.
  3. It looks like something out of a 1995 Perl script - plain black text on a white background. Not that I have any problem with Perl, mind you.
  4. A very matter-of-fact tone. There is no attempt to humanize the message, or add any personality.
  5. A plus: quite clear directions
  6. Another plus: three separate action paths visitors may follow (get IE, use the Download Center link, or turn on Automatic Updates)

Example #2 - Google

I received this error message a week or so ago, while Gmail was down for a couple hours.

Things to notice:

  1. This is identified as an error message, with the additional flourish of being a “Temporary” error. Immediately reassured. Somewhat, anyway.
  2. Some formatting and design are present. It looks nice.
  3. An apology - “We’re sorry”
  4. Not blaming the visitor - “your Gmail account is currently experiencing errors.”
  5. Explaining what’s happening, with just enough detail to be reassuring.
  6. A “What next” - “try accessing your account again in a few minutes”
  7. Several alternate, but unsatisfactory actions -Try Again, and Sign Out. I’ve resigned myself to having no support for free Google products, so am not surprised there’s no way to get more help. Bummer, but offset by the freeness of Gmail.

Oops! We’re out of time!

Sorry, I’ve run on so long that we’ve reached the end of this blog post. For more reading enjoyment, please visit our other web usability or conversion optimization posts.

If that doesn’t work, leave questions or topic suggestions in the comments and I’ll get right back to you.

 

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