Noticeable Errors
After my last post, I came across this error message and thought it exemplified all the qualities that a noticeable error message should exhibit.
1. It’s in a contrasting color (I know on our last conversation red was discussed and is used here, but if your site’s overall color-scheme is red it will not be effective at catching your customer’s attention).
2. It’s located in a place that the customer is already looking. By placing the error message where your customers last click was, there is a great chance that it will get noticed if everything else remains the same.
3. It’s outlined. By boxing-in the error message it acts as a magnifying glass, drawing attention further to the message.
4. It calls for an action. Nothing is worse than an error message that says “error” with no instruction on how to remedy the problem. You want the customer to continue on through your site, make this error moment as easy to pass as possible.
Remember: It doesn’t matter how explicit, creative or beautifully written your message is. If no one is reading it, it might as well not exist.
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Written by:Natalie Hart
#3 “It’s Outlined”. I think it shouldn’t be outlined too much, like Windows Vista does. The user might get scared and think the whole system is gonna crash (I’ve seen that happen to my uncle when Vista asked him if it was okay to Install a untrusted application).