

Why aren’t Apple's error messages written by marketers? - aresant
http://conversionvoodoo.com/blog/2010/06/why-aren%e2%80%99t-apples-error-messages-written-by-marketers/

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epochwolf
Okay... that redesigned error message looks like every error message I run
into on Windows and the link always points to a useless page on microsoft's
website. I prefer the other error.

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sprout
Actually, the other day I was installing a patch to a Microsoft game, when it
crapped out on me and rebooted.

I got the "would you like to report this information to Microsoft" prompt,
figured "hey, it's Microsoft game after all" so I hit yeah, and it opened up
Firefox and told me that the problem could be addressed by downloading an
updated sound driver.

So Microsoft does do this right, when there's a solution.

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zyb09
Hmm do you really want "Whoops, we apologize a slight error has happened, but
behold everything is alright..." instead of "Error C0000005 go google this"?

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aresant
Yah but:

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/feb/11/facebo...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/feb/11/facebook-
readwriteweb)

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billforsternz
I am guessing that there are dozens or maybe hundreds of assertion type errors
like this buried in the code. Only a small fraction of them turn out to be
real errors that actually occur in the field.

So presumably the guy who coded the original error message didn't anticipate
real issues and likely didn't have a handy resolution available. Only later,
once the code was in the wild and the error started happening reasonably
frequently in the real world did customer support investigate the problem
more. Eventually a workaround was developed and made available on a website.

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blahedo
Sure, but the link could go to a dynamically generated page; for the truly
rare (or nonexistent) errors the response will be sparse, but for the cases
that arose semi-frequently after the app was released into the wild, the
website could have up-to-date fix info.

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elbrodeur
Defensive Design by 37 Signals and Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug are both
great books about how to design for when things go wrong. Engineers, in
addition to designers, should read these books post-haste. EDIT: If you're a
hacker in SOMA/SF and want to borrow either of these books they're very quick
reads.

The trouble with technical error messages is that almost invariably, engineers
end up writing them. "Not my area of expertise" or "I put in a request for
copy months ago" are some of the many reasons that poor error handling
happens.

Additionally, having a truly helpful environment requires additional
resources: In the example in this article, the "Heres how to fix your
problem!" link would require an additional application to keep track of known
issues and solutions.

That being said, it's exactly how every application should work: Error
messages like this may not be daunting to more technically proficient users,
but the vast majority of users are not technically proficient and many users
simply give up (if they can) when they see an error message that they are
unable to understand/fix.

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aresant
For that matter, why aren't everybody's written by markters or at least given
some UI thoughts?

People talk up good customer service all the time - sort of starts w/the error
message IMO

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zandorg
"Keyboard not found. Hit F1 to continue"

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aresant
Remember "This error should not have occurred."?

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logic
"lp0: printer on fire?"

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lp0_on_fire>

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alsomike
Written by marketers? You mean something like "An error occurred! Oh, and have
you signed up for our promotional newsletter? It's FREE!"

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wmeredith
Ugh, fuck that. They should be written by UX Designers who've gotten persona
research from marketing and know the use cases from development.

