4 ms·

Why Can't Error Messages Be Fun?

21 points by bdfh42 18y ago

bdfh42 18y ago
Following on from yesterday's debate on the suggested banning "coding horror" from HN here is a fun post that could get us all thinking about the very thorny issue of communicating application problems to the user.
Jebdm 18y ago
"Chrome is a joy to use, and in my opinion at least, it's the first true advance in web browser technology since the heady days of Internet Explorer 4.0." Um... add-ons? XMLHttpRequest? User scripting/Greasemonkey? User stylesheets? Built-in search bar? AwesomeBar? Ubiquity? Adblock? Popup blockers? True zoom? Session saver? Tabs?
- nx 18y ago
  Well, it's not the first true advance, but it's got tab processes and the Javascript engine (JIT compiler, I think it was) and some other new ideas.
  - Jebdm 18y ago
    Yeah, sure. I didn't mean to imply that Chrome didn't have some cool stuff. I really hope this tab-as-process thing catches on, or at least become something you can enable (right-click -> fork or something similar).
    - trickjarrett 18y ago
      It's the way the main browsers are going. Firefox is still wrestling with it, as I understand it, because it adds more overhead for memory which is obviously something they were already fighting with.
    - nx 18y ago
      Me too. That's the only feature I really want in Firefox, I think.
ams6110 18y ago
Cute/Fun error messages will IMO get annoying really fast once the novelty wears off. Just like that clippy thing in MS Office.
- peregrine 18y ago
  No really I've seen the errors probably twice using Chrome full time since its release. And each time they disarm any anger I have and make me smile. Write your software with so few bugs that its a joy to see them every time they pop up and your doing something right.
sdfx 18y ago
I really dislike these cutesy google-style error messages à la "oops something went wrong" and "Aw, snap ..." - Often, their information value is zero: they don't explain to you how to solve the problem or what went wrong (maybe with the exception of the frozen error message). When you are frustrated because something isn't working these messages can get on your nerves fast. It's great if you can package the information in a funny way, but if you can't I'd take function over form any time.
- wyday 18y ago
  If they could "explain to you how to solve the problem or what went wrong" then they wouldn't need to show a vague error message. They'd just fix the problem.
  - verdant 18y ago
    Typically, though, if the browser could display some kind of information on the nature of the error, this could give a savvy user something they could type into a search engine or ask an intelligent question about on a forum, which might help them fix whatever is causing their problem. This might not apply as much to the web, where the problem is likely a malfunctioning network connection, or a problem with the web server (or server side code). But it could help where the user is having a problem trying to accomplish something with an application which they will never be able to do until they change something on their end, or attempt it a different way.
- verdant 18y ago
  I agree, and to be fair to Jeff, he does point this out. It kind of gets lost in the main idea of his post. FTA: "Don't get me wrong. Your error messages should always be informative and helpful. That's not optional."
GeneralMaximus 18y ago
NetPositive, the default web browser on the BeOS, had great error messages. Here: http://www.8325.org/haiku/ http://www.8325.org/haiku/
Deestan 18y ago
That only really works if your application crashes very rarely to begin with. Unfortunately, that excludes the stuff I'm working on. I really like the "dead tab" icon, but if it showed up 5 times per day, I'd grow to loathe it in a week.
comatose_kid 18y ago
One computer I owned did make them fun, although it still didn't lighten the blow of having to reboot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Meditation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Meditation
thwarted 18y ago
Spending time to make your error messages interesting or fun or silly or whatever is time spent doing something that shouldn't be shown. Oversized pixelated graphics of freezing browser tabs says "our programmer created this in three minutes", which is most likely the right amount of time, considering the important thing about that kind of error reporting is the ability to let the user recover and try again.

21 points by bdfh42 18y ago

Following on from yesterday's debate on the suggested banning "coding horror" from HN here is a fun post that could get us all thinking about the very thorny issue of communicating application problems to the user.

Jebdm 18y ago

"Chrome is a joy to use, and in my opinion at least, it's the first true advance in web browser technology since the heady days of Internet Explorer 4.0." Um... add-ons? XMLHttpRequest? User scripting/Greasemonkey? User stylesheets? Built-in search bar? AwesomeBar? Ubiquity? Adblock? Popup blockers? True zoom? Session saver? Tabs?

nx 18y ago
Well, it's not the first true advance, but it's got tab processes and the Javascript engine (JIT compiler, I think it was) and some other new ideas.
- Jebdm 18y ago
  Yeah, sure. I didn't mean to imply that Chrome didn't have some cool stuff. I really hope this tab-as-process thing catches on, or at least become something you can enable (right-click -> fork or something similar).
  - trickjarrett 18y ago
    It's the way the main browsers are going. Firefox is still wrestling with it, as I understand it, because it adds more overhead for memory which is obviously something they were already fighting with.
  - nx 18y ago
    Me too. That's the only feature I really want in Firefox, I think.

ams6110 18y ago

Cute/Fun error messages will IMO get annoying really fast once the novelty wears off. Just like that clippy thing in MS Office.

peregrine 18y ago
No really I've seen the errors probably twice using Chrome full time since its release. And each time they disarm any anger I have and make me smile. Write your software with so few bugs that its a joy to see them every time they pop up and your doing something right.

sdfx 18y ago

I really dislike these cutesy google-style error messages à la "oops something went wrong" and "Aw, snap ..." - Often, their information value is zero: they don't explain to you how to solve the problem or what went wrong (maybe with the exception of the frozen error message). When you are frustrated because something isn't working these messages can get on your nerves fast. It's great if you can package the information in a funny way, but if you can't I'd take function over form any time.

wyday 18y ago
If they could "explain to you how to solve the problem or what went wrong" then they wouldn't need to show a vague error message. They'd just fix the problem.
- verdant 18y ago
  Typically, though, if the browser could display some kind of information on the nature of the error, this could give a savvy user something they could type into a search engine or ask an intelligent question about on a forum, which might help them fix whatever is causing their problem. This might not apply as much to the web, where the problem is likely a malfunctioning network connection, or a problem with the web server (or server side code). But it could help where the user is having a problem trying to accomplish something with an application which they will never be able to do until they change something on their end, or attempt it a different way.
verdant 18y ago
I agree, and to be fair to Jeff, he does point this out. It kind of gets lost in the main idea of his post. FTA: "Don't get me wrong. Your error messages should always be informative and helpful. That's not optional."

GeneralMaximus 18y ago

NetPositive, the default web browser on the BeOS, had great error messages. Here: http://www.8325.org/haiku/ http://www.8325.org/haiku/

Deestan 18y ago

That only really works if your application crashes very rarely to begin with. Unfortunately, that excludes the stuff I'm working on. I really like the "dead tab" icon, but if it showed up 5 times per day, I'd grow to loathe it in a week.

comatose_kid 18y ago

One computer I owned did make them fun, although it still didn't lighten the blow of having to reboot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Meditation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Meditation

thwarted 18y ago

Spending time to make your error messages interesting or fun or silly or whatever is time spent doing something that shouldn't be shown. Oversized pixelated graphics of freezing browser tabs says "our programmer created this in three minutes", which is most likely the right amount of time, considering the important thing about that kind of error reporting is the ability to let the user recover and try again.