How to Design Better Web3 Error Messages
This is a long and rambling piece that involved a lot of research. If you just want the takeaways, skip to the end. I’ve categorised all the main errors, and tried writing some better messages for them. 😉
SECTION ONE: WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT
UX writing can have an outsize impact on your product
There’s an adage that ‘design is 90% text’ — I’ve seen it attributed to various people in various forms, so I’m not going to pretend to know who said it first.
It’s a bold statement, but it points to the fact that most of what your user sees, interprets, and acts on is going to be text. They scan for key words, they follow instructions, they find buttons, and they stare baffled at error messages.
If you get your copy right — and display it at the right size, in the right layout — you increase the usability of your product by a massive amount.
Error messages are particularly important because they’re literally the thin line(s of text) separating users from non-users. If the user can’t overcome the error, they can’t use your app.
The excellent book Microcopy: The Compete Guide explains:
An error message temporarily stops the process the users are trying to complete. As far as they are concerned, the message delays them and requires them to…
