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User-Friendly Error Messages - A Good Example

By Michael Shrivathsan on Aug 21, 2009 in Product Management, User Experience

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One of my pet peeves with most software is the cryptic, unfriendly error messages thrown up by so many of them.

At Accompa, we try to make error messages in our own software as friendly and useful as possible. I think we still have a long way to go, but we work hard at it.

I just saw the following error message from bit.ly - the URL shortening service used on sites like Twitter. On most websites, this is usually a cryptic “404 Error” message. See how bit.ly has made it so friendly and fun! :)

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Do you have any good examples to share? Or may be some bad ones?! Click here to let us know your thoughts & examples…

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1 Comment(s)

  1. 1. Mats | Aug 24, 2009 | Reply

    I like Twitter’s “Fail Whale” error message! ;)

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