Re: [Usability] Wording of Error Dialogs

[Bryan Clark <bclark redhat com>]

On Wed, 2004-06-23 at 11:56 +0200, Sebastian Heinlein wrote:
> I plan to do a major rewording and unification of the error messages of
> a project that I am working on. Since we want to be conform with the
> HIG, I would like to know if there is a policy on this.

As far as HIG Guidelines go...

Here is where the HIG recommends language for errors:
http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/draft_hig_new/language-errors.html

Since these are probably alerts you'll want to read the alerts section
too:
http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/draft_hig_new/windows-alert.html

> For me there are the following possibilities:
> 
> 1. "Failed to open %s."
> 
> 2. "Couldn't open %s."
> 
> 3. "Can't open %s."
> 
> 4. "%s could not be opened."
> 
> The "writing for translation" section of the documentation style guide
> doesn't recommend the use of the passive tense. So which way to go?

Here's a recommendation for error dialogs that I would give.

>From previous email suggestion [1] that I really like, don't call these
'Error Messages'.  Instead call them 'Solution Messages', this way you
can help your users to fix the problems instead of just turning your
application into 'Captain Obvious'.

An error dialog can still be mostly HIG compliant if it is like this:

|------------------------------------------------------------|
|              	<big><bold>Couldn't open file</bold></big>   |
|  [error icon]                                              |
|               <i>More description on why the file couldn't |
|                  be opened</i>                             |
|                                                            |
|                                                     [ OK ] |
|------------------------------------------------------------|

However it's most helpful if you provide, what the HIG calls a
'convenience button', a button that could actually solve the error this
dialog is reporting.  This button would go just to the left of the
[ OK ] button and would use action text.  See the HIG section on alerts
for more information on this.

Cheers,
~ Bryan

[1] http://mail.gnome.org/archives/usability/2003-October/msg00108.html

-- 
Bryan Clark <bclark redhat com>
Red Hat Desktop Design Ninja