Error messages
Error messages are baffling if you take them literally.
Take this one that’s always lurking in the corner of browser windows: “Object expected on line 1.” Though you’d never know this from the message, no ordinary object e.g. fishing rod, tea bag nor any change to line 1 will fix this JavaScript error. If you ask around, you find out that the message means: somewhere – on any line of code – there’s an open curly brace { with no soulmate closing curly brace }.
Turning now to heartache, I’m sort of an open curly brace without a soulmate. It’s a tricky predicament. Although no code will resolve it, the fix is riddled with error messages.
Take “hope to see you soon.” I got this one after behaving like a horrifying goof and asked some earthlings what it meant. As it turns out, mention of future contact at a distant unspecified time means precisely: I intend never to endure the torment of your company again. If you get this error message *do not* wonder how soon or attempt to coordinate a seeing soon.
Because it neither describes a problem nor suggests a solution, “hope to see you soon” is an irrecoverable error. It’s made all the more difficult by the context in which it occurs: A person who you think is the bees knees hijacks your thoughts for weeks. New t-shirts, lipgloss with sparkles, many text messages, panic, nausea and forgetting who you are ensue. In all this fuss, you’re in no shape to deal with confusion.
All this to say: if you must dash out of an admirer’s life, mind your error messages. Follow Jacob Nielsen’s guidelines and give an “explicit indication that something has gone wrong” and “constructive advice on how to fix the problem.” To be thorough, you might use this gadget to put a user interface on your error message and see how it reads.
This is neither explicit feedback nor does it promote recovery.
This doesn’t promote recovery but acknowledges a change in the state of affairs. It is legitimate if unfortunate feedback.
This one describes an unfortunate change in the state of affairs, provides legitimate feedback and promotes recovery.
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Comment by MK
(nearly spits up wine from laughing so hard)
darling… you are UX to the core! I have never had the kind of dating miscommunication you describe framed quite this way. Remember that no matter how many error messages you get when prototyping something, if you are persistent in your goal, you’ll end up with a smooth surfing experience. Not to mention that an adorably funny curly brace like yourself will hardly stay un-paired for long.
Posted on March 1, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Comment by Nat
I love the new honest message system. Maybe you can text him back saying you would be delighted to see him soon, and how soon exactly could it be. Maybe show up at his house with flowers and show him what \’soon\’ means to normal people. Then he\’ll go running for the hills before he sends another misleading error message.
Posted on March 3, 2007 at 8:26 am
Comment by schmo
i agree - you’re the cutest egg.
Posted on March 4, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Comment by Jalin
I’m not sure I sit with the earthlings on this one: ’see you soon’ surely has a bit of scope for sincerity? At the very least, the person who says it can’t complain if it’s taken at something like face value and an invitation given in response.
Gotta love the error-message / human-communication analogy, though. And the idea of ambiguity-free, constructive communication - however unlikely it is that most people could deal with giving or receiving it.
In the spirit of explicit feedback, though, did my email of however many months ago (on an opportunity that’s no longer there) ever make it through your spam filters?
Posted on March 7, 2007 at 3:00 am
Comment by Maya
MK: I would deny your optimistic projection if you were not a Zen mistress. There is glory in persistent prototyping, heh?
Shmatash: bless your sweet well-adjusted soul for finding anything cute about a big crank.
Jalin: Your take on the matter is pretty sensible and makes me feel less like a socially uninitiated jungle woman. Thanks for alerting me to your months-ago email. Either I didn’t see it until now or my cognitive dissonance is worse than I think it is. Even if the opportunity is no longer available, explicit feedback is: it was very cool of you to send it my way. Oh - and you seem more cheery than Leonard Cohen too.
Posted on March 8, 2007 at 1:54 am
Comment by schmo
dying for your next posting…when will it be?
Posted on March 23, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Comment by tamersie
i know… all i do is check your site for new postings. you write amazingly well lady
Posted on March 24, 2007 at 8:52 am
Comment by MK
I echo schmo’s sentiment… when will we hear more from you, uber-bella?
Posted on April 2, 2007 at 6:13 am
Comment by shmatash
seriously - it’s time for an update. what’s going on?
xoxo
Posted on August 8, 2008 at 4:14 pm