Domain7

Using Error Messages as Opportunities

Are you more human than your competition? part 2

As great as the web is, it’s not perfect. The Internet is in a constant state of flux. Online, change is a given, and web developers are always trying to keep up. In spite of our best efforts, from time to time things do go wrong. Websites break, pages go missing, and the result is usually a nasty, unfriendly error message.

When something does go wrong and visitors see something like this, they get annoyed, promptly delete your URL from their bookmarks, and (likely) never return again.

Here at Domain7 we have a dedicated team of people who work hard to ensure glitches don’t ruin users’ experience on our sites. When things do go wrong, we treat it as an opportunity to direct visitors to the search function or the home page.

With that in mind, web developers need to be one part running back, and one part figure skater. Like running backs, they should make every effort to keep going, no matter how much opposition is in the way. Like figure skaters, when they fall, they should topple with as much grace as possible.

Designers and developers should make every effort to ensure that when something does go wrong, it has minimal impact on the visitor’s overall experience.

Instead of thinking about error messages in a system-to-person context, imagine them as a person-to-person mix up. A misdirect or broken link is really a human failure—you have failed to connect with another human who wants to interact with your site. Recognizing this helps you build trust.

Imagine an online banking service is down. If a physical branch had an outage, a teller might say something like: “We’re closed for some quick repairs, but if you come back at 3pm, we’ll be back in business,” or “We’re not sure when we’ll be up and running—would you like to be notified when we are?” Why can’t the web be as personal? It sure beats a “System Unavailable” message. You wouldn’t simply say, “System outage!” to someone’s face, would you?

These instances of failure should not be ignored—they should be addressed immediately by your site’s support staff. They are opportunities to show humility. Humble pie doesn’t always taste that bad. It also shows people that you value them. Error messages can be playful, clever or instructional, but they ought to include a sincere apology for any confusion, and guide the visitor back home.

Read Part 1 of the series: Are you more human than your competition?

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