🟤🟡 How to write error messages that actually help users rather than frustrate them
by Amy Hupe @amyhupe.bsky.social
at @piccalilli
#ErrorMessage #webdev #UserExperience

https://piccalil.li/blog/how-to-write-error-messages-that-actually-help-users-rather-than-frustrate-them/

@zl2tod @_elena Thank you much for very useful tip!I had many tabs indeed because I need them to keep a list of people from my "Notifications" who followed me to examine their profiles whether I want to follow back.

Why doesn't the error message say "Mastodon doesn't support tabs, close tabs"?And why does the message deliberately prevent typing?This way I don't know what to do to get rid of the message.

Also, how am I supposed to keep a list of people from my Notifications who followed me to examine their profiles whether I want to follow back?Just hovering over each of them takes about 10 seconds to display whether they follow me or not, which is a huge waste of time.

Have Mastodon authors actually tried to use Mastodon?I guess not.Did Mastodon do UX testing?

#ux #mastodon #PITA #tabs #tabbedbrowsing #list #people #notifications #following #follower #followers #uxtesting #errormessage #badux

Back in 1985, when I worked in the IBM Software Usability Lab in Atlanta, I wrote a Design Change Request for the boot up error message:

'Keyboard Not Attached. Press F1 to continue'

Not only wasn't it fixed, but it was carried over in every PC clone.

I tried.
#pc #errormessage #itried

🚨 Oh, the riveting saga of the "80386 Microcode Disassembled"—except it wasn’t! Instead, we were treated to the thrilling plot twist of... an error message. 💾🤦‍♂️ Apparently, even servers have better things to do than indulge your disassembly fantasies. 🙄🖥️
https://www.reenigne.org/blog/80386-microcode-disassembled/ #80386Microcode #Disassembled #ErrorMessage #ServerIssues #TechHumor #ComputerSaga #HackerNews #ngated
80386 microcode disassembled « Reenigne blog

Microcopy matters, folks.

#microcopy #ContentDesign #UX #ErrorMessage

@beitmenotyou

Hi Michael,

I keep trying to follow you back, but I'm getting an error message.

#altrext #errormessage #ErrorMessageOfTheDay
#errormessages

🚨 Breaking News: A groundbreaking, Pulitzer-worthy exposé reveals... the internet equivalent of a busy signal! #Vercel, in an act of daring transparency, has shared a stunningly detailed error message with the world. 🌎 Meanwhile, hackers everywhere are trembling at the thought of... environment variables. 😱✨
https://www.trendmicro.com/en_us/research/26/d/vercel-breach-oauth-supply-chain.html #BreakingNews #ErrorMessage #Cybersecurity #EnvironmentVariables #HackerNews #HackerNews #ngated
The Vercel Breach: OAuth Supply Chain Attack Exposes the Hidden Risk in Platform Environment Variables

An OAuth supply chain compromise at Vercel exposed how trusted third party apps and platform environment variables can bypass traditional defenses and amplify blast radius. This article examines the attack chain, underlying design tradeoffs, and what it reveals about modern PaaS and software supply chain risk.

Trend Micro

Got this:

!MESSAGE BadLocationException
...
org.eclipse.jface.text.BadLocationException
at org.eclipse.jface.text.ListLineTracker.getLineOffset(ListLineTracker.java:212)
...

Now I will think very badly of the dev.

It is followed by 20 seconds of idling (or whatever).

It would cost me a few milliseconds to know where the problem is if the error message would tell ***WHICH LOCATION IS BAD***.

Please follow https://miamao.de/blog/2024-02/12.Good_Log_Messages.html

#java #software #logging #errormessage

One of the truly funny moments in my tech writing: I forget what the project was, but during final edits of an actually not very large manual, Microsoft Word bleated this https://nxdomain.no/~peter/dokumentet_er_for_stort.jpg at me.

This translates to "The document is too large to save. Delete some of the text before saving."
#badsoftware #documenttoolarge #microsoftword #MSFT #errormessage

Ah yes, the timeless joy of reading a 19th-century treatise on #coffee ☕, brought to you by the wonder of modern web design: a blank page demanding #JavaScript and #cookies 🍪. Truly, the future of historical #literature has arrived, and it looks suspiciously like an error message 🙄.
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mqrarchive/act2080.0035.002/10 #webdesign #errormessage #HackerNews #ngated
Michigan quarterly review: Vol. 35, No. 2