A very important part of software usability is the quality of the error messages. When things start to go wrong, error messages can make the difference between the user realising their mistake and quickly correcting it, or getting frustrated and confused.

Unfortunately, error messages are often produced by coders rather than the user-interface designers. Coders have other priorities than carefully wording an error message.

One short, cryptic error message in our application was causing a lot of confusion; it was causing a large number of calls to our help-desk. I decided it was time to fix the problem.

I sat down, and carefully reworded the error message. The new version explained the problem that had been encountered. It explained how it came to be that this problem had occurred. It explained step-by-step what was required to fix the situation. It did it in English that had been carefully written for clarity and had been peer-reviewed.

I had, in my own little way, made my users’ world an easier place to live in.

Shortly after the release, I received an email from a user that contained a screen-shot of the brand-new easy-to-understand error message, and a short request: “I got this error. What do I do now?”

I almost started sobbing.