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“You have been logged out due to inactivity.”

I beg your pardon? That wasn’t very friendly was it?

This error message popped up from one of the online systems at work the other day. Actually I thought I’d been pretty busy for quite a while, so this was pretty disappointing to hear.

My point here is: pay attention to the error message that come from your website. And the welcome message. And the login message.

These messages are your chance to interact with your visitors. How often do you get the chance to do this? This is your opportunity to speak direct to your customers, so please say something nice.

Also, remember that the only reason you have the error message in the first place is because your code isn’t working. That’s slightly controversial I know, especially if you are a programmer (like me). Your code should be designed to deal with everything that your visitors throw at your site. In fact, it’s probably worth getting a non-programmer to write your messages.

What should an error message say?

The first thing you should do is apologize. Then explain what happened (from your visitors’ point of view). Tell them what they should do next and show them how to avoid the error in the future.

After all, no one wants to be told off twice.

Tags: error, message, visitors, web design, webdesign, website

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