Should error messages apologize?

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It is common to find an error message that says: "Sorry, you are not allowed to access this function. Please contact the administrator for help."

An "apology" is appropriate in this case?

It is a clear case that the problem is not the fault of the system/platform/service provider. So why should there be such an apology? That is important?

Do you have any source of authoritative information that justifies your use?

Note that I’m not asking if you use one way or another, and what you think is right. Unsubstantiated responses are invalid and should be voted down. Information indicating with clarity and justification the reason for the use, or not, are constructive.

  • 1

    Error messages should be comprehensive to the user. More importantly explain easily for him to know what happened, and check if the error is his or the sitema, than just receive an "Sorry, error occurred".

  • 4

    The staff also understands psychology, my humble opinion give excuse is kind, but it would be much more useful to give the excuse and inform a link or in the message itself the requirements to achieve that permission, and if they are achievable. Something like "Sorry, your reputation does not allow you to take this action, know "here" how it works and how to achieve this minimum reputation"

  • In any case, the error messages should be clear, other than: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/getfile/378314 "Sorry, Something Went Wrong. An Unexpected error has ocurred."

  • In my humble opinion, taking into account the scenario of an application that uses HTTP, errors of type 4xx should not apologize, after all the error of the client, the errors of type 5xx, yes, because the error is of the application, especially if it is paid. Anyway, as already said, the error mesing should be clear and complete or contain a link that explains better

5 answers

220


This issue is complex and involves, in my view, two main aspects:

  • The cultural context in which human-computer interaction is inserted.
  • The usage context (error, informative alert, etc.) that made it necessary to display the message to the user.

On the cultural context...

First, one must consider that there are significant cultural differences with regard to the act of apologizing. There are studies comparing American and Japanese cultures that show that in certain situations (such as when someone collects a pen that you dropped) Americans use the word Thanks (thank you) to express gratitude while Japanese use the word Sumimasen (sorry) to express a similar feeling - though under a cultural meaning of humility or subjugation (Sugimoto, Naomi. "Sorry we apologize so Much": Linguistic Factors Affecting Japanese and U.S. American Styles of Apology. Intercultural Communication Studies VIII-1, 1998).

I tried to find similar material comparing other cultures with Latin cultures, but I did not find (perhaps these studies are not common here). In any case, from my own experience I believe that this same distinction also exists in relation to our culture: I have English and French friends who have no shame in inviting only part of a group to a children’s party (in front of the others, not invited because they do not fit the condition "having children"); in this same scenario, we Latinos would make the invitation individually and privately or we would apologize for not inviting the singles and couples without children.

The fact is that the excuse is an important social lubricant, whose character in the interaction also serves as a way to indicate the real intention of the interlocutor (something like "I really didn’t mean to hurt/bother you on purpose")and so is traditionally used to initiate a conversation considering a possible interruption of any introspection/activity of the recipient of the message (Wagatsuma, Hiroshi and Rosett, Arthur. "The Implications of Apology: Law and Culture in Japan and the United States". Law & Society Review, v.20, n.4, 1986). Especially in relation to Japanese culture, the apology is considered as necessary to "prepare the atmosphere" of the interaction ("Why Japanese apologize so often?" , Facebook Note - Japanese Language & Culture, 2008), but again I believe that this is also happening in Latin culture when we begin a conversation ("sorry sir, what time is it?" does not necessarily indicate a fault or fault, and has for us virtually the same meaning of "excuse me sir, what time is it?").

On the context of use...

In addition to the cultural context, it should also be considered that the presentation of the message aims to communicate to the user (read "man") some information relevant the condition in which the application (read "the computer") is. In other words, it is a human-computer interaction initiated by the computer. Just over 10 years ago computer scientists became interested in research related to User Experience and to Affective computing, and it is increasingly believed that the hedonic, emotional and social character of the interaction is fundamental not only in the choice of a product but also in the continuity of its use. This means that it is not enough for a product to be safe, effective and pleasant (in the sense of absence of discomfort), it should also provide an interesting and appropriate experience to the context in which it is used.

I remember the key note presented by the President. Dr. Soraia Raupp Musse in the WVC'2008 in which she cited the example of one of the first sessions of the film "The Polar Express" presented to an audience of children. According to the teacher, the way the characters' eyes moved in a particular scene (I can’t remember which one specifically) was so distinct from the natural that many of the young children simply cried out in fear. This example is somewhat exaggerated here, but serves to illustrate the point I want to get at: the way the interaction occurs is important for the human part of this interaction, because it is natural that we seek to humanize the other side (i.e., the machine).

There are numerous works being carried out to build humanoid computational agents in order to make the interaction more empathic through the mimicry of facial and corporeal expressions, and also of vocal expressions like the "hum hum" that denotes "I understand you" (examples 1, 2, 3, 4, and especially 5 and 6). I believe that all this effort means that there is a recognition of the importance of the humanization of the machine in this human-computer interaction.

Concluding...

Finally coming to the subject of the question about the use or not of excuses in a message, everything suggests that this use is not only acceptable (at least in our cultural context - and probably also for the Japanese! : )) as may even be necessary under certain conditions. In any case, it is not simply a question of apologizing for a failure, but of softening the way information is presented or of making the interaction more empathetic and natural to the human user. And I think that goes for any form of interaction, whether it’s just textual or not.

A scenario in which the use of "sorry" seems valid under the judgment of the previous arguments is in the case where the program condition interrupts or prevents the use of the product (or significant part of the product) by the user. An example of this scenario is when a user turns on their Playstation to watch a movie on Netflix, but the system reports that it is under maintenance. It seems socially appropriate to apologize in this case, mainly because the impact on the experience ("wow, I really wanted to watch this movie now...") is definitely great, and perhaps this impact can be mitigated by an indication of humility and subjugation in the interaction that somehow demonstrates the creator’s concern about the malaise caused by the lack of the product.

Perhaps excuses really aren’t necessary when informing you that you don’t have access to a certain resource, but I’m afraid that still depends on the context of use. To indicate to a user of a corporate system (i.e., a system he is required to use for work reasons) that he does not have access to a particular resource, the lack of excuses seems to be irrelevant because probably the attempt at invalid access treated him or heris an honest misunderstanding on the part of man and does not necessarily alter his experience. However, in the indication of impossibility of access to a resource in an entertainment or personal system (that is, something the user uses because he wishes, and does it for fun or for some personal benefit) the use of excuses may be appropriate. In fact, in this case it may even be appropriate to include additional interactions such as "You would like to have access to this resource?".

EDIT:

I found that thread on User Experience that deals with the same subject. The answer accepts (and also with more votes) agrees that the use of "apologies" is appropriate and often necessary. Among the various arguments (I recommend reading the question and its answers), there are two based on citations of scientific studies whose results support a courteous strategy to apologize.

The first citation is to the article "The Effect of Apologetic Error Messages and Mood States on Computer Users' Self-appraisal of Performance". The passage that seems relevant to me is this (in free translation):

[...] When users encountered problems, the system provided certain error messages representing a courtesy strategy positive (for example, a joke), negative (for example, a simple excuse) and a mechanical error message (for example, the page is temporarily unavailable). Study results demonstrate that users who deal with social events and expressions courtesy prefer significantly more to receive messages with excuses than mechanical messages or with jokes; also prefer significantly more receiving such messages than other options less courteous.

The second quote is taken from the article "Computer Apology: The Effect of the Apologetic Feedback on Users in Computerized Environment". Again, what seems relevant in free translation:

[...] this study shows that almost all participants did not consider the answers (feedbacks) with apologies as something strange, being that 95% of them considered such delicate responses and a consideration for your well-being. In this regard, it seems that the participants find it so interesting to notice a behavior respectful (as an apology) when they encounter an error caused by computer inability as they would find if they found a problem in interaction with a human. These study results indicate that the representation of a person’s affective state in the project interface is very important in human-computer interaction because people are more understanding when seeing emotional aspects in the interface as sensitivity, respect and sense of humanity. So, these results may be evidence to support that the use of expressions with excuses on computers can foster the idea of a really user-centric design.

It should be noted that excuses are not necessarily more appropriate than humor. In the scientific study of the first citation, user orientation was previously evaluated and it is expected that people who live in more courteous social contexts (perhaps, for example, hotel attendants) prefer similar behaviors in the systems with which they interact. Anyway, it is noted in the two researches that the crucial issue is the humanization with which users treat the system, which should be included in the interaction project in one way or another.

  • 13

    You found the source of the bigown :) And congratulations on the answer. When I saw that question I had serious doubts whether there would be any good answers, and you proved me wrong.

  • 3

    Who is smart, can take a lot of rep in these cases, bringing good content. Just stay tuned. And you did more. Your answer is better than the original.

  • 4

    ... This is almost an article. Publish it, man! Seriously!

  • 1

    Wow, I respected the guy @Luizvieira

  • 1

    The question was good, but the answer was excellent. Congratulations.

73

Caution when apologizing in an exception

Apologizing for an error would not lead a user to most users thinking "Oh what cool, he knows the error was his"; an error message where the system admits an error passes the image that errors are so constant that he admits through the message.

An overly strict client could look down on a system that apologizes for a mistake.

Are there exceptions to what I said above? Of course! But I only see it happen with big companies: Google, Yahoo, etc. If your project has a good reputation in the market and the name of the company is heavy you could use the message as an excuse to even give the impression that: "my system is so hard to make an error that it just happened. sorry".

What we should evaluate when displaying an error message?

There are several factors that we must weigh when creating an error message:

  1. What is the user level? If your user includes people with little affinity with computing, have no reason to use technical terms or complex message.
  2. What is the clarity of the message? Will anyone who reads the message be able to understand the error? Maybe it was a Nullpointerexception that broke the code, or it was a Saldoincienteexception; regardless of the type of error the message is clear?
  3. Always set the next user action. What will be the next action after the error? Try again? Contact support? Perform some action (such as filling in a certain input) so that the error no longer occurs?
  4. Never display technical error. Avoid letting any error be displayed to the user without being handled. If the language was Java, for example, you could create an Exceptionhandler that would handle any type of error that happened on the system (whether an expected error or not). The problem of displaying technical error to the user is that a hacker could use this error message to attack you.

Tips for a good error message

  1. If your client is someone casual you could try something funny. Some examples would be: Twitter (the whale), Google (which talks about monkeys working there), GIT (which shows a JEDI to page not found) and so on.
  2. If your customer is a formal person, be careful about what will be displayed. Ideally, let them know that an unexpected error has occurred. If possible, put a button where the customer could send an email detailing the problem.

Pleasing to the customer

When a client realizes that there is a pre-provision of the project to act in a case of error, he is more satisfied. It is only good to give a quick response to the user, even if it is an automatic email until the problem is analyzed.

  • 1

    I’d use "unfortunately" instead of "sorry".

59

Good humor is a trend that is gaining strength in these cases, mainly on the web. E-commerce stores, for example, use messages like:

Oops! By the way our promotions have been successful, we are working to increase our server cloud in a few moments press F5

Now, if the system needs something more formal, the default is to inform the occurrence of an error and then some orientation, such as:

An error occurred, try again in a few moments and if yet have problems please contact the support sector

In the case of your question, it would be a situation where the request cannot be processed, but not for system failure, good practices are to inform the user, in the least rude possible, apologies in these cases are not appropriate measures, think that if the user is not allowed to do certain action, that is why it was predetermined, some examples:

  • Your request cannot be completed, request the Administrator’s assistance

  • You are not allowed to carry out this action

33

In my view the question has already been answered with many positive and important points in user interaction.

I think it’s important to classify the system and define the target audience to be able to measure the characteristics of user feedback.

It is a question of usability

First, considering failure as an unrecoverable error, given these misconceptions I think it necessary to consider the possible state of mind of the user to know that his task was not completed. Even if it is not the fault of the system’s programming, it is common for more lay users to blame the system. It is this way then that I defend the point where one should educate users with comfortable messages ridding the face of the system of errors that are outside its remit. As error of connection on the Internet. In this case the message "sorry" in my view is not welcome, but rather an "Oops, let’s not create panic. It seems that you are having internet problems...", of course depending on the formality of your audience.

Second, exceptions of the system itself must offer a dialogue that demonstrates to the user a total control over the situation. Since at these points, the system must be able to recover from the exception thrown, or provide a means by which the user does so, depending on the type of Exception.

In all these points we have 3 characteristics

  1. What kind of System I have and to which audience it is intended?
  2. Does this all sound very formal? It is good not to formalize things even more with sudden messages, on the contrary, we should soften the human-computer interaction.
  3. Message levels should certainly track user levels.

27

There are two very different cases in my view:

  • Exceptions for the developer

  • Error messages for end user

Text of Exceptions

I think an exception should always be as explanatory as possible, in order to indicate what caused it, and possibly how to correct the problem in which the code stumbled... thus, the development and maintenance of the application becomes easier, thus increasing the quality of the software as a final product.

Error Messages

Error messages depend on the target audience... nowadays there is a good mood when it comes to software for the masses. However in the corporate world, the ideal is to remain serious and well educated, but I don’t think you should go so far as to apologize... it gives me a bad impression. Instead, it would be far better to present a contact phone, in email, a link to open a ticket... whatever, but looking for a solution. A proactive message towards solution is the best thing to do... obviously in my view.

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