Designing better error messages

Social Experience Design Best-practices
#1

The latest Smashing Magazine newsletter linked to these articles:

https://wix-ux.com/when-life-gives-you-lemons-write-better-error-messages-46c5223e1a2f

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#2

Yeah, much love for the SmashMag.

Besides the usual pain of forms. “If anything, users tend to find auto-jumps more annoying than auto-scrolling” I think this applies also to non error jumping, a scroll on click has a more natural feeling. Good insight on that other article, it’s the details that can make a huge difference.

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#3

Type of error message used depends on where I am at. Other type wll be on BE and other on FE.

FrontEnd:

  • clear,
  • concise,
  • meaningful,
  • with example
  • no jargon

BackEnd:

  • may not be so meaningful ( BE is for an IT pro who should know ins and outs),
  • may be hectic (though not so much),
  • may include H/W code, STrace and/or other technicalities.