My all time Donald Rumsfeld favorite:
should provide helpful information and advice, not only for the user, but also for tech support and maintenance programmers. The web is full with examples of useless and stupid error messages like those in this classic article from 1998.
No doubt that errors messages should be useful, but in most cases, it's far better than no messages at all. I've seen individual developers and even companies taking the shortest path to "solve" the problem of problem by taking the totally DTTC wrong approach (Don't Tell The Customer), thinking that they can swipe a temporary or minor event's problem under the rug but then creating a bigger problem of unknown unknowns.
There are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don't know.Ask anyone that used a software for long enough and he'll tell you that error messages
should provide helpful information and advice, not only for the user, but also for tech support and maintenance programmers. The web is full with examples of useless and stupid error messages like those in this classic article from 1998. No doubt that errors messages should be useful, but in most cases, it's far better than no messages at all. I've seen individual developers and even companies taking the shortest path to "solve" the problem of problem by taking the totally DTTC wrong approach (Don't Tell The Customer), thinking that they can swipe a temporary or minor event's problem under the rug but then creating a bigger problem of unknown unknowns.
Preventing some error messages in order to "simplify" the user
experience or "solving" the problem by hoping that it'll be solved by
itself if the customer will not notice is wrong.
Think about cars: When the yellow check engine lights pops, you know that the engine should be fixed. Some of us might know how to check ourselves, others would need to use On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) tools at home or the shop. Over time car manufacturers learned to provide usable warning indicators, in most cases and yet no one thinks to remove those warning lights.
Beware of the "no error" errors. Sometimes it can indicate a systematic design failure, the kind that you should really avoid.
Think about cars: When the yellow check engine lights pops, you know that the engine should be fixed. Some of us might know how to check ourselves, others would need to use On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) tools at home or the shop. Over time car manufacturers learned to provide usable warning indicators, in most cases and yet no one thinks to remove those warning lights. Beware of the "no error" errors. Sometimes it can indicate a systematic design failure, the kind that you should really avoid.
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