5 ms·
>In the browser, you just press F5/Ctrl+R/⌘R Many users have no idea what does that mean and will just panic seeing the default error page. They will not read
by ivan_gammel 3y ago
>In the browser, you just press F5/Ctrl+R/⌘R
Many users have no idea what does that mean and will just panic seeing the default error page. They will not read the message there and either will abandon the form, reach customer support or will restart their flow. You are absolutely right about the complexity of the form submission when network problems are taken into account, but default browser behavior isn't the best solution.
- chrismorgan 3y agoI suspect (though perhaps I’m naively optimistic) you may be doing the affected users an injustice. Most people will either practically never experience these error pages, or be familiar with them and their causes because they know their internet connection is dodgy at times. And the “Try Again” button’s pretty clear.
- ivan_gammel 3y agoYou will be indeed very optimistic to assume that generic „Try again“ is clear to everyone. In some cases the effects of it are unclear even to power users and they won’t click it. Let’s say I have got timeout page after clicking the final button in the checkout process: how do I know that it won’t place the order twice if I submit again? How do I know that it will submit it again correctly? After all, those timeouts happen often due to server-side delays. Today most people do not encounter those pages, because they interact with SPAs and more likely to encounter different error behavior. Good internet connection won’t prevent anything. Imagine a child accidentally unplugging the wifi router and grandma seeing the timeout page, because her browser doesn’t know that wifi is down. What she would do? This is the kind of situation IT support is dealing with regularly.