As UX designers, our goal is to create the best possible user experience and prevent any frustration. However, all applications, especially complex ones, can have bugs or other issues and display error messages.

Whether it’s a server error or invalid input, our applications will encounter obstacles along the way. The key isn’t preventing all errors (impossible!), it’s how we present them to our users. A well-crafted error message can turn a frustrating moment into a helpful nudge in the right direction.

My experience

Recently, in my job a product designer, I was challenged to review all the error messages in the application we are developing and find a way to not frustrate the user all the time with error messages.

From a developer's perspective, error messages are important to help identify the problem, and as long as they (developers) understand what happened, everything is fine.

But the truth is that users may not understand an error message from a developer, and they don’t really care about what happens on the backend. They only care whether they are able to perform the task or not and what they should do next. So the error messages should always be specific and give instructions on what to do next, rather than just saying there is an error and let the user become frustrated and leave the app.

The other issue is how often error messages should be displayed. To many errors can lead to a user abandoning your app, and this only adds to the perception that your app is bad. This is not good for the user or the business.

<aside> <img src="/icons/forward_gray.svg" alt="/icons/forward_gray.svg" width="40px" />

So my job was to collect every single error message from the app and ask these questions:

• is there a way to prevent this error from happening?
• can I rewrite the error message in a positive way?
• is this message clear and specific?
• is this message helpful and offers solutions to solve the problem?
• is there another way to display the error? </aside>

Avoiding the Error

Some errors can just be avoided, specially when the error is caused by user input.

Here are some examples:

• using drop down menus to select from a list of items to avoid invalid user input
• if the user is expected to enter a number in a mobile app, enable only the numeric keypad to avoid other types of input
• if the user has not filled in all the required fields, do not display the button to proceed

The idea is to guide the user to use the app in the correct way to avoid errors. Most apps just let the users do the error and then display the alert, blaming the user for being stupid and not knowing how to use the app properly. The result is a bad user experience.

Positive Messages

Error messages are usually negative, rude and frustrating. We should always try to find a more positive way to tell the user that there was a problem and avoid blaming the user. Try to find a friendly and helpful tone. Instead of "You entered an invalid email address," try "The email address you entered doesn't look quite right. Could you double-check it?"

Be Specific and Clear