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January 19, 2012

7

Error message: Major rewrite required. Volunteers?

On arrival in the office this morning I went through the usual routine of starting up my PC, opening MS Outlook and checking my email. With offices throughout the world this slightly mundane activity is my way of ensuring my To Do list is up to date with what has happened overnight. This morning I was taken aback by the error message below:

This error message is wrong on so many technical communication levels.

  1. The cause of the failure leaves you with more questions. What exactly does “program error” mean?
  2. Why does it tell me to “Quit Outlook” when it previously stated that it has failed to start.
  3. The verbage “quit” may be understandable but still seems a bit severe to me.
  4. Does the instruction to “start again” apply to both MS Outlook and Windows?
  5. Why is the instruction repeated?

These are just the first five failures I found with this error message. I’m sure the collective brains out there could think of others. Over to you!

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  • Amebr

    I always love that less than half of any Microsoft product follows the Microsoft Guidelines. Then I love the fact I tell my devs “follow the MS guidelines here: URL” and they come back with “but MS does it they way I did it: screenshot proving point”. :p

    • http://www.cmcandrew.com/robocolumn/ Colum McAndrew

      This is a good example of how someone NOT connected to technical communications should never be allowed to write error messages.

  • Larry Kunz

    A more honest version of the message might go something like this:

    You didn’t really want to work with your email, did you? Reboot your system (yeah – like you’re really going to do that), go get a cup of coffee, and try again.

    • http://www.cmcandrew.com/robocolumn/ Colum McAndrew

      Ironic error messgaes. Yeah I love that idea :-)

  • M. Hunsberger

    You also gotta love how the button says “OK,” as if by clicking it you are confirming that everything is, indeed, okay :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Doug-Schwartz/781378074 Doug Schwartz

    More preaching to the choir. If you think this is a poor error message, you should try writing code and see the obscure error messages produced during that activity. Vetting error messages falls slightly below whale stuff in most companies.

    • http://www.cmcandrew.com/robocolumn/ Colum McAndrew

      I guess I expected more from Microsoft, especially with their resources. Just goes to show they are human after all.