How to get users to read error messages?

Question

If you program for a nontechnical audience, you find yourself at a high risk that users will not read your carefully worded and enlightening error messages, but just click o

Answer 1

Well, to answer your question directly: Don't have your programmers write your error messages. If you follow this one piece of advice, you'd save, cumulatively, thousands of hours of user angst and productivity and millions of dollars in technical support costs.

The real goal, however, should be to design your application so users can't make mistakes. Don't let them take actions that lead to error massages and require them to back up. As a simple example, in a web form that requires all its fields to be filled in, instead of popping up an error message when users click on the Send button, don't enable the Send button until all the field contain valid content. It means more work on the back side, but it results in a better user experience.

Of course, that's a bit of an ideal world. Sometimes, program errors are unavoidable. When they do occur, you need to provide clear, complete, and useful information, and most importantly, don't expose the system to user and don't blame users for their actions.

A good error message should contain:

1. What the problem is and why it happened.
2. How to resolve the problem.

One of the worst things you can do is simply pass system error messages through to users. For example, when your Java program throws an exception, don't simply pass the programmer-ese up to the UI and expose it to the user. Catch it, and have a clear message created by your user assistance developer that you can present to your user.

I was lucky enough, on my last job, to work with a team of programmer who wouldn't think of writing their own error messages. Any time they found themselves in a situation where one was required and the program couldn't be designed to avoid it (often because of limited resources), they always came to me, explained what they needed, and let me create an error message that was clear and followed company style. If that was the default mindset of every programmer, the computing world would be a far, far better place.