
Oops I ruined your life - nreece
http://www.cooper.com/journal/2012/01/oops_i_ruined_your_life.html
======
nlawalker
Every one of the links he provides about how to write good user-facing error
messaging mentions that the error text should spell out what went wrong and
what the user can do to fix it.

The problem with this advice is that in 2012, everything is on the web and
problems either arise from network issues, database problems or bugs that can
be patched into the live product in many cases. Therefore, the vast majority
of users don't care what went wrong, largely because in most cases there's
only one thing they can ever do to fix it: try again later. The example he
uses to kick off his post - a GMail send failure - is a canonical example. Try
again later.

As for error messages being too casual, with the showing of sad faces and big,
bright usage of words like "Oops!" - it's because you have about a fiftieth of
a second to communicate to the user that something went wrong and they're
seeing something that's not what they're supposed to be seeing. Literally, two
words is too much; user study after user study has revealed that people simply
don't read error messages and fruitlessly click "OK", either thinking there
was no problem, or wondering if they did something wrong.

------
pippy
Realistically you can't do anything about most modern error messages.

If you got a backtrace from a gmail error, what can you do? ssh into a google
server and fix the bug? Or how about patch your version of office with a
binary you made?

You might as well attempt to put a smile on someones face after you failed to
send that important document (that they should have backed up).

------
overgard
I kind of like these error message. They remind me there's a human being on
the other side. Shit happens, people puffing out their chests to sound more
official doesn't help anyone.

~~~
Mizza
I agree, I think the author is being dramatic.

Also, as a programmer, I fuck up. I genuinely feel bad about it, and using
cheesy smiley faces/etc is a kind of punishment for me. It might seem cute,
but I hate them, so I'm going to try to not show them to my users as much as
possible.

------
seltzered_
Here's the reason it needs to be friendly and cute: Non-tech savvy people.
When my mom or dad see any error message (notably windows os ones that don't
have any oops!), they completely freak out and call me about it.

Do you want all of your non-tech savvy friends calling you about a non-cute
error message fearing the apocalypse happened to their computer?

~~~
wmf
This is addressed in the article: "What we need to do is dial it down from 11
on the friendly meter…11 is just too creepy. There is a happy middle ground
where developers can apologize and software can provide the user polite
guidance about what to do next."

(The bomb icon on the original Mac was meant to be a joke (computers don't
explode, _obviously_ ), but there's an apocryphal story that someone ran in a
panic when they first saw it.)

~~~
minikomi
You could always go with something outright esoteric:

[http://urgiddi.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/guru-
meditation-c...](http://urgiddi.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/guru-meditation-
crisi-finanziaria.jpg)

------
CoolGuySteve
I think the idea is to communicate to the user that there were real live
humans writing the software and they made a mistake rather than hal.dll or
some other inhuman code/machine thing.

This way, rather than personifying the buggy product and getting angry at it,
the blame is shifted to a more forgivable entity. "Everybody makes mistakes",
etc.

I suspect that's the line of reasoning anyways since a lot of these products,
like gmail and iCloud are pretty much all business, only giving the most
utilitarian feedback until they crash, at which point the cute blasters get
set to kill.

~~~
pfraze
Yeah, but there's an appropriate middle ground here.

"Something has gone wrong. We've backed up your work, which you can retrieve
_here_. It appears the server did not receive the latest update. We will
attempt to send the data again, but, in the mean-time, we recommend..." etc.

The message is from professionals that are ready for the unpredictable, which
we are.

------
SageRaven
Is there a valid design reason for a site to render zero content if the
browser has JavaScript disabled?

Ok, so the top bar shows up, but not the actual post. And if I select
View->Page Style->No Style, I can find the text, as well.

Sad.

~~~
rachelbythebay
Maybe it's being "meta", as in "oops, I couldn't degrade gracefully"?

It happened to me as well. Good call on disabling styles -- that worked!

------
Yhippa
I have this debate quite a bit with my friends with regards to how apps crash
in Android vs. iOS. In iOS when an app crashes it takes you back to the home
screen. In Android I believe the highest exception is shown to the user.

I like the way Android does it because when I have a recurring problem with an
app I can eventually find the solution to the app crashing through a Google
search. I think for most people the iOS way is probably better. That puts the
onus on the app provider to do research and read the reviews to try to fix the
problem.

Windows Phone is a mix of the two in my experiences. Sometimes it shows a
stack trace and sometimes it just kicks you back to the Start screen. I
believe Microsoft made certain rules like if an action takes longer than 10
seconds to perform than it will automatically boot you back to the Start
screen.

------
ceejayoz
Personally, I think the Windows 8 BSOD shown is a great improvement.

~~~
ceol
At least they're embracing the fact most users search for their error messages
online.

------
gte910h
The OP feels like a bit of a curmudgeon.

Cutesy is nonthreatening and sometimes amusing.

~~~
mooism2
But can also come across as patronising, if you were trying to do something
important.

------
enko
Ironically, in the Daily Show video the author embeds down the bottom, I get
an "Unavailable Video" error message.

~~~
robertskmiles
Yeah, it took me a long time to realise that that wasn't another demonstrative
image

<http://i.imgur.com/uOyZU.png>

------
duncanj
I have difficulty believing Microsoft would have introduced a cutesy BSOD
without at least focus grouping it. Anyone know for sure?

~~~
artursapek
If it was any kind of A/B testing between that and their old version I bet it
won.

------
cjfont
I interpreted the article as being written tongue-in-cheek, and simply aimed
at poking fun at some of the ways tech companies deliver these messages. Most
of the time getting these messages isn't tragic, and they simply serve to make
the situation more lighthearted.

------
plasma
The best error messages are simple, explain the problem, and how to fix it.

It's frustrating to see 'Windows Update failed: Error code 0xXYZABC123' -
that's no help to me.

Or see an error about 'A problem occurred trying to do this and that' with no
recourse.

A better approach is "There was a problem saving your file. There may not be
enough disk space free. Try deleting files you don't need anymore to make more
space," (etc) that gives the user a way to try and fix it without being so
frustrated.

I'm guilty of some useless error messages, but I try and make sure any error
messages I write from now on try to be helpful to get the user back on track
to what they wanted to be doing.

~~~
armandososa
Except is that almost nobody is going to read that. And most of the people who
read it will not understand a word which will make them feel stupid.

I think the best error message for 99% of people says something like

    
    
      WE did something stupid. PLEASE try again or contact us.

------
ricardobeat
I think the author got lost on the tracks. Every article he points to is
against his case - these are unrecoverable errors, there isn't nothing the
message could say to help, so it might as well just try to be nice.

------
MichaelApproved
As a power user, I like detailed error messages because I can search for
solutions online, if they exist but I can definitely appreciate the need for a
simplified version for the regular user.

A good middle ground is a generalized message that has an advanced button with
more details underneath. I do agree that it could be dialed down from 11 on
the cute scale. Showing a graphic of a monkey with some smartass remark is not
pleasant when I just lost data.

------
rangibaby
I don't know why Microsoft chose a huge :( over a more graphical
representation. With the rise of click-and-go "real" emoticons in phones,
Gmail, blogs etc., will the user demographic friendly error messages are aimed
at even understand what it is meant to be?

~~~
eropple
The Metro aesthetic is primarily textual. (Whether you like it or not is up
for debate, but at least it's consistent.)

------
georgieporgie
That was a lot of whining, followed by a vague, "we should do something sort
of in the middle!" Ugh.

Anyway, "Guru Meditation Error" - Commodore, 1985. Cute has been around
forever. Software has grown insanely more complex now than ten or twenty years
ago. Providing a meaningful error in a concise manner is effectively
impossible. Providing an overload of information does _not_ help the end user
deal with their frustration. The people at these companies are smart, I'm sure
they've found user frustration and support costs are lower with a simple, cute
error message.

~~~
flannell
How funny. I came here to post about the Guru Meditation error. Those were the
days!

------
its_so_on
I disagree with this post entirely, and think these error messages are great.
They show remorse.

Which email would you rather get after working a week on a presentation to a
client with your partner:

a)

just got a call that the client signed with another firm.

b)

just got a call that the client signed with another firm :(

one of these shows the disappointment and the fact that you poured a week into
this work and were shot in the back (assume the client didn't even mention
another firm in the picture), one of these doesn't.

show remorse in your error messages, like a human.

