5 ms·

Yeah, can't really disagree with any of this. Depressing how many programmers and software designers don't listen to this advice though, I mean, look at the sta

by CM30 9y ago

Yeah, can't really disagree with any of this. Depressing how many programmers and software designers don't listen to this advice though, I mean, look at the standard Windows Media Player error nowadays. Server execution failed, really? You couldn't be more precise than that? Eh, I guess it's still better than the (thankfully very rare outside of deliberate glitches) error Nintendo consoles give you now. "The software closed because an error occurred". Thanks for that useful piece of advice.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
r3bl 9y ago
Nothing's worse than Windows 10's "something happened" error message: https://i.stack.imgur.com/LRZtX.png https://i.stack.imgur.com/LRZtX.png
- avg_dev 9y ago
  haha, under what circumstances does this occur?
  - nkrisc 9y ago
    Is it not clear? When something happens.
    - jacobush 9y ago
      Windows. Where some things happen.
- marcosdumay 9y ago
  Oh, the famous Windows 10's emoticon messages are way worse.
  - gsich 9y ago
    Yeah, I don't like those "funny" messages. Sadly Microsoft has been inspired to this.
    - csydas 9y ago
      Funny error messages in general are pretty annoying to deal with when it's an actual exception as opposed to something relatively simple like an HTTP 404. I admittedly have a bias since I've worked in Tech most of my life and am used to being able to solve technical problems, and it's very frustrating to be told "Whoops! Something went wrong" or "Oh no! There's a problem! We'll dispatch a team of ninja monkeys to fix it!" when all you want is more information. What specifically went wrong? Is it on my side, is it on the website or application's side? What steps can I take to actually fix this, since I've tried again multiple times already? I'm sure I'm sitting on the wrong side of countless user studies that say to the contrary, but when an exception or problem occurs, I really dislike the feeling of helplessness. Something isn't working the way it is supposed to, and often times I can only rely on myself to fix it; this is particularly relevant for companies with non-existent support services, like Google, where you're basically at the mercy of what other more adventurous and capable users are able to fix on their own. To me, tossing up a "funny" error message when there is no support channel is incredibly frustrating, because not only is there no one I can ask for assistance, I can't even do research myself because I have nothing to go on except for a caricature of the WebDevs or a Frowny-Face and the steps leading up to the problem. Again, I'm sure I'm on the wrong side of countless studies here, but I can't figure out how this is better than at least some sort of error message.
      - gsich 9y ago
        Probably, but this just because studies include non-tech people too. For them a useless help message is ... well not useful. But at least it doesn't confuse them with tech words. For tech people it is also useless, so I don't know who those error messages should help. I also dislike the first person error messages. "We are sending ...", "Let me fix this" when you are clearly 'talking' to a computer.
      - 9y ago
- b4lancesh33t 9y ago
  Diagnosing failed windows updated is tough for exactly this reason. The UI doesn't bubble up anything detailed, not even an opaque error number. You have to dig through the log files.
  - barrkel 9y ago
    If you even get log files, and they aren't locked away in trace files that need conversion.
adrianratnapala 9y ago
I think here was are seeing @vadimberman's caveat coming to bite. These sorts of messages don't look like someone communicating badly, but someone doing as well as they can given the architecture. The subsystem that understands the error doesn't have the context to tell the user what to do about it, but the subsystem with context doesn't understand the failure mode in enough detail to actually give the right advice.
rdiddly 9y ago
In Windows I liked the one I used to see about an "internal error." This one is helpful because it lets you know the error happened inside the computer.

by CM30 9y ago

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

r3bl 9y ago

Nothing's worse than Windows 10's "something happened" error message: https://i.stack.imgur.com/LRZtX.png https://i.stack.imgur.com/LRZtX.png

avg_dev 9y ago
haha, under what circumstances does this occur?
- nkrisc 9y ago
  Is it not clear? When something happens.
  - jacobush 9y ago
    Windows. Where some things happen.
marcosdumay 9y ago
Oh, the famous Windows 10's emoticon messages are way worse.
- gsich 9y ago
  Yeah, I don't like those "funny" messages. Sadly Microsoft has been inspired to this.
  - csydas 9y ago
    Funny error messages in general are pretty annoying to deal with when it's an actual exception as opposed to something relatively simple like an HTTP 404. I admittedly have a bias since I've worked in Tech most of my life and am used to being able to solve technical problems, and it's very frustrating to be told "Whoops! Something went wrong" or "Oh no! There's a problem! We'll dispatch a team of ninja monkeys to fix it!" when all you want is more information. What specifically went wrong? Is it on my side, is it on the website or application's side? What steps can I take to actually fix this, since I've tried again multiple times already? I'm sure I'm sitting on the wrong side of countless user studies that say to the contrary, but when an exception or problem occurs, I really dislike the feeling of helplessness. Something isn't working the way it is supposed to, and often times I can only rely on myself to fix it; this is particularly relevant for companies with non-existent support services, like Google, where you're basically at the mercy of what other more adventurous and capable users are able to fix on their own. To me, tossing up a "funny" error message when there is no support channel is incredibly frustrating, because not only is there no one I can ask for assistance, I can't even do research myself because I have nothing to go on except for a caricature of the WebDevs or a Frowny-Face and the steps leading up to the problem. Again, I'm sure I'm on the wrong side of countless studies here, but I can't figure out how this is better than at least some sort of error message.
    - gsich 9y ago
      Probably, but this just because studies include non-tech people too. For them a useless help message is ... well not useful. But at least it doesn't confuse them with tech words. For tech people it is also useless, so I don't know who those error messages should help. I also dislike the first person error messages. "We are sending ...", "Let me fix this" when you are clearly 'talking' to a computer.
    - 9y ago
b4lancesh33t 9y ago
Diagnosing failed windows updated is tough for exactly this reason. The UI doesn't bubble up anything detailed, not even an opaque error number. You have to dig through the log files.
- barrkel 9y ago
  If you even get log files, and they aren't locked away in trace files that need conversion.

adrianratnapala 9y ago

I think here was are seeing @vadimberman's caveat coming to bite. These sorts of messages don't look like someone communicating badly, but someone doing as well as they can given the architecture. The subsystem that understands the error doesn't have the context to tell the user what to do about it, but the subsystem with context doesn't understand the failure mode in enough detail to actually give the right advice.

rdiddly 9y ago

In Windows I liked the one I used to see about an "internal error." This one is helpful because it lets you know the error happened inside the computer.