How to Irritate Your Customers

1
How to Irritate Your Customers

• Learning by Example
• A Guided Tour of the Hall of Shames Error
  Messages

2
Writing Error Messages

• Reconsider the need for the message
• Prevent, dont detect
• Describe the problem in a useful way
• Assist the (new) user
• Clarify what you need the user to decide
• Don't shout at the user!
• Make sure your messages work properly
• Be consistent when it makes sense
• Do not use it as an excuse to be lazy

(Adapted from Writing Effective Error Messages)
3
Reconsider the Need for the Message

4
Bad Design

• Why?
• From IBM's Aptiva Address Book

5
Prevent Rather Than Detect

• Happens when trying to change an empty record
• What would be an alternative solution?
• From IBM's Aptiva Communication Center

6
Use Better Teamwork

• Created by MediaPros, a company specializing in
  computer-based tutorial design, for the tutorial
  forMosaix, a customer support application

7
Describe the Problem in a Useful Way

8
Whats the Problem?
9
Asking Too Much

• What if a session has very many open images?

10
Cruel Unusual Punishment

• Hint You need to type Y E S into the
  dialog box to continue

11
Trying to Be Helpful

• Should I delete a random message for you?

12
Exposing Internal Errors

• What would be a good alternative?

13
Clarify What You Need the User to Decide

14
What Should I Do Next?

• Hint Click the small X on the top-right

15
and Even Worse

• Hint CTRL-ALT-DEL

16
Which One to Click?

• Both buttons do the same thing
• What would be a good alternative?

17
Losing All Hope

• From Microsoft Developer Studio
• What would be a good alternative?

18
Don't Shout at the User!

19
Exclamation Point!

• Displayed in Visual Forms when the user has
  selected the Preview function, without having
  first specified the browser to use to view the
  document
• From Zoc, a communications application

20
DO NOT USE UPPERCASE

• WHY IS THIS MESSAGE SHOUTING?
• From Time Chaos

21
Dont Blink

• Unless the computer is on fire
• From MsgBox Mayhem

22
Make Sure Your Messages Work Properly

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Is There a Problem?

• How would you prevent these messages?

24
Think Ahead

• What would happen with an even longer filename?
• What would be a better alternative?

25
Provide Enough Space

• From GIF Construction Set
• In this example, the files are labeled
  base9a.gif' through 'base9k.gif'

26
Dont Lie!

• Where is the Continue button? Or the Cancel
  button?
• What does this message say, anyway?

27
Be Consistent When It Makes Sense

28
When Is Consistency Bad?

• Was the programmer told to use standard
  interfaces?

29
When Is Consistency Good?

• From NoteBook, a shareware note-organizing
  application

30
Be Consistent With Yourself

• This is a compilation of various dialogs used in
  the VB5 programming environment

31
Abusing a Tab Design

• From Milltronics' Dolphin Plus

32
Abusing a Message Box

• From Midwest Microwave's online catalog

33
Summary User Rights

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User Rights 1

• Perspective
• The user is always right. If there is a problem
  with the use of the system, the system is the
  problem, not the user.

• Installation
• The user has the right to easily install and
  uninstall software and hardware systems without
  negative consequences.
• Compliance
• The user has the right to a system that performs
  exactly as promised.
• Instruction
• The user has the right to easy-to-use
  instructions (user guides, online or contextual
  help, error messages) to achieve their desired
  goals and recover efficiently and gracefully from
  problem situations.

Can you think of an example of a violation of
this rule?
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User Rights 2

• Control
• The user has the right to be in control of the
  system and to be able to get the system to
  respond to a request for attention.
• Feedback
• The user has the right to a system that provides
  clear, understandable, and accurate information
  regarding the task it is performing and the
  progress toward completion.
• Dependencies
• The user has the right to be clearly informed
  about all systems requirements for successfully
  using software or hardware.

36
User Rights 3

• Scope
• The user has the right to know the limits of the
  system's capabilities.
• Assistance
• The user has the right to communicate with the
  technology provider and receive a thoughtful and
  helpful response when raising concerns.
• Usability
• The user should be the master of software and
  hardware technology, not vice-versa. Products
  should be natural and intuitive to use.

(From Guaranteeing rights for the user)
37
Sources for This Presentation

• Interface Hall of Shame http//www.iarchitect.com/
  mshame.htm
• Interface Hall of Shame - Writing Effective Error
  Messages http//www.iarchitect.com/hterror.htm
• Karat, C-M. Guaranteeing rights for the user.
  Communications of the ACM 41, 12 (December 1998),
  29-31. http//doi.acm.org/10.1145/290133.290144