Not designing for error is an error

I recently read an excellent case study on error messaging at Wix.com.

The companys product was producing too many errors and the accompanying error messages were mostly a generic afterthought that didnt help users make a bad situation better.

The CEO of Wix apparently initiated the effort to make better error messages with an email, which included this very frank statement:

Generic errors are the result of bad development and product.

Wix isnt alone here. Every team I have worked with does not design errors. Theyre rarely accounted for and when they are its always reactive instead of proactive to use the authors words. Aside from addressing root causes of errors, Wix suggests good error messaging includes five parts:

1. Say what happened
2. Say why it happened
3. Provide reassurance
4. Given them a way out
5. Help them fix it

Nice!

Not designing for error is an error. The error case is one of the default use cases every designer should include in their work. I wrote about these use cases, which I like to refer to as Zero-1-2-1000-Error.

You can read the full Wix story here.