Actually, I hadn't meant it as tongue in cheek 8^).
Error messages don't need to be "sexy" or anything, unless you're tying them
into the style of the rest of your site. As an example (and this isn't
really an error message, but...) Amazon.com recently began letting users
earn "nickels" of credit by answering questions about Amazon. Great idea
for getting users to learn more about Amazon, especially since they tend to
provide a link to where you can find the correct answer. The problem is,
the message Amazon shows when you answer a question. Amazon is *NOT* a hip
and edgy site but their answers tend to be along the lines of:
Far Out Dude!
You're right, Amazon does have 3,645,786 brands of men's underwear.
or
Oh, Bogus!
You're wrong, ...
I realize Amazon is trying to form a friendlier relationship (I guess) but
Amazon doesn't seem to me to be the kind of site that would call me "Dude."
Anyway, the point really is that the main purposes of an error message are
to (1) inform the user that there is an error, (2) explain what the error
is, and (3) explain how to correct the error. The not-tongue-in-cheek error
message I suggested earlier ("Foo must be a valid, non-negative number
without fractions or decimals.") addresses points 2 & 3. Presumably it
would begin with something like "One or more errors have been found..." etc.
to address the 1st point.
--
Mosh Teitelbaum
evoch, LLC
Tel: (301) 942-5378
Fax: (301) 933-3651
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
WWW: http://www.evoch.com/
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kreig Zimmerman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Friday, July 11, 2003 1:18 AM
> To: CF-Talk
> Subject: RE: Usability
>
>
> No man...
>
>
>
> ...it's because the way I read that other poster, his
> hyper-correct error message was intended as tongue-in-cheek.
>
>
>
> Don't get yer knickers in a twist...
>
>
>
> --- On Thu 07/10, Chunshen (Don) Li < [EMAIL PROTECTED] > wrote:
>
> From: Chunshen (Don) Li [mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
> >Quod Erat Demonstratum<br>From the "tum" ending of the word,
> Demonstratum, I know it's Latin, but I don't know
> Latin.<br><br>Kreig Zimmerman, bastard, insulted me for what, not
> knowing Latin?
>
> _______________________________________________
> No banners. No pop-ups. No kidding.
> Introducing My Way - http://www.myway.com
>
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