Another day, another error message to write. Can you tell how chuffed I am?
Scenario: A user is shopping using a price comparison app that boasts “real-time” pricing on items. As they are checking the price of an item, something goes wrong. The problem is unknown.
Challenge: Write a message that informs the user that they cannot access the app right now. You cannot specify “why” the app doesn’t work, you also want them to continue using the app.
Headline: 30 characters max
Body: 120 characters max
Button(s): 15 characters max
According to Microcopy: A Complete Guide, a useful error message should explain clearly that there is a problem, explain what the problem is, if possible, provide a solution or
point them to where they can go for help which would make a potentially frustrating experience better.
In today’s challenge, the source of this error is yet to be discovered which means procuring a solution would prove difficult but you have to let them know something is wrong and this setback shouldn’t put them off using the app again.
Headline
The scenario shows that the user wants to know real time prices for whatever products they’re interested in and they suddenly can’t access it. Using an informal but not cryptic tone, I will be going with,
We lost the price tags.
I could have also gone with,
Searching for prices…
Body
With this part, I will be reassuring the user of this issue being uncovered and fixed and also making sure they still come back some other time to utilize the app. I will be achieving that by saying,
Something is wrong but we are currently working on resolving this issue. We will notify you when it is fixed.
At a second glance, I should have probably added
Please, bear with us.
OR
Thank you for your patience.
at the end. Should I have?
Button(s)
Without buttons or CTAs, the user wouldn’t know what to do next or where to go which could result in the closure of the app. We don’t want that. Having informed them that a notification will be sent immediately it’s fixed, I want to give them options on what to do, refreshing the page to do other things e.g collating a list of products they’d check their prices later or closing the app in anticipation of the earlier promised reminder.
