如何使用户阅读错误消息? [英] How to get users to read error messages?

问题描述

如果您是为非技术人员设计的程序，则您将冒着很大的风险，即用户不会阅读措辞严谨且令人鼓舞的错误消息，而只是无奈地单击可用的第一个按钮.

If you program for a nontechnical audience, you find yourself at a high risk that users will not read your carefully worded and enlightening error messages, but just click on the first button available with a shrug of frustration.

因此，我想知道您可以建议什么样的良好做法来帮助用户实际阅读您的错误消息，而不是简单地放弃它.我能想到的想法将遵循以下原则:

So, I'm wondering what good practices you can recommend to help users actually read your error message, instead of simply waiving it aside. Ideas I can think of would fall along the lines of:

• 格式化课程帮助；可能是一条简单的简短消息，带有了解更多"按钮，会导致显示更长，更详细的错误消息
• 已将所有错误消息链接到用户指南的某些部分(有些难以实现)
• 只是不发出错误消息，只需拒绝执行任务(一种处理用户输入的苹果"方式)

我想到的受众是一个相当广泛的用户群，该用户不会经常使用该软件，而且也不是专属于用户(即，没有内部软件或狭窄的社区).在 slashdot 上提出了此问题的更一般形式，因此您可能要

the audience I have in mind is a rather broad user base that doesn't use the software too often and is not captive (i.e., no in-house software or narrow community). A more generic form of this question was asked on slashdot, so you may want to check there for some of the answers.

推荐答案

这是一个很好的问题，值得我+1.这个问题尽管很简单，却涵盖了最终用户性质的许多方面.它归结为许多因素，这些因素将使您和软件本身受益，当然也对最终用户有利.

That is an excellent question worthy of a +1 from me. The question despite being simple, covers many aspects of the nature of end-users. It boils down to a number of factors here which would benefit you and the software itself, and of course for the end-users.

• 不要在状态栏中放置错误消息-尽管它们用颜色等引起了混乱，但它们永远不会阅读它们.它们将始终怀念它们！无论您多么努力，...在Win 95 UI测试启动之前的某个阶段，MS都会进行一次实验来读取UI( ed -应该是注意到该讯息是在在椅子下面看"的上下文中明确指出的.)，将一张100美元的钞票贴在椅子的下侧，表示受试者正坐在上面……没有人发现该讯息.状态栏！
• 使消息简短，不要使用诸如警告:系统遇到问题"之类的令人生畏的词，最终用户将按下紧急按钮并将反应过度...
• 无论您多么努力，都不要使用颜色来识别信息……从心理上讲，这就像向公牛挥舞着红旗一样！
• 使用中性的发音来传达最小的反应以及如何进行！
• 最好显示一个对话框，列出中立的错误消息，并包含一个复选框，指示最终用户想要的最后一件事是:您将来是否希望看到更多这些错误消息?"要在弹出消息轰炸的软件中间工作，它们会感到沮丧，并会被应用程序关闭！如果勾选了该复选框，请改为将其记录到文件中...
• 让最终用户知道将会出现什么错误消息...这意味着...培训和文档说明...现在这是一个棘手的问题...您不希望他们思考会出现问题"或故障"，以及在发生这种情况时该怎么做...他们一定不知道会有可能的错误，确实很棘手.
• 总是总是不要害怕在发生平稳时询问反馈-例如当错误号1304出现时，您是如何反应的?您的解释是什么?-这样做的好处是，最终用户可以为您提供更连贯的解释，而不是错误1304，数据库对象丢失！"，而他们可能会说我单击了此，因此因此，然后有人不小心拉开了机器的网络电缆"，这将提示您必须对其进行处理，并可能将错误修改为糟糕，网络连接已断开"……您得到了解决之道.
• 最后但并非最不重要的一点是，如果您要针对国际受众，请考虑错误消息的国际化-因此这就是保持错误消息中性的原因，因为这样一来，翻译起来将更加容易，避免使用同义词，语等.这将使翻译变得毫无意义-例如，汽车公司 Fiat Ford出售自己的品牌 Fiat Ford Pinto，但注意到南美没有销售，原来，平托是那里的小阴茎"的语，因此没有销售...
• ( ed )在标题为错误消息"或纠正措施"或类似内容的文档的单独部分中记录预期的错误消息列表，并以正确的顺序列出错误编号一两个关于如何进行...的声明...
• ( ed )感谢 Victor Hurdugaci 的输入，请保持信息礼貌，不要使最终用户感到愚蠢.如果用户群是国际用户，则这与 Jack Marchetti 的答案背道而驰.

• Do not place error messages in the status bar - they will never read them despite having it jazzed up with colours etc....they will always miss them! No matter how hard you'll try... At one stage during the Win 95 UI testing before it was launched, MS carried out an experiment to read the UI (ed - it should be noted that the message explicitly stated in the context of 'Look under the chair'), with a $100 dollar bill taped to the underside of the chair that the subjects were sitting on...no one spotted the message in the status bar!
• Make the messages short, do not use intimidating words such as 'Alert: the system encountered a problem', the end-user is going to hit the panic button and will over-react...
• No matter how hard you try, do not use colours to identify the message...psychologically, it's akin to waving a red-flag to the bull!
• Use neutral sounding words to convey minimal reaction and how to proceed!
• It may be better to show a dialog box listing the neutral error message and to include a checkbox indicating 'Do you wish to see more of these error messages in the future?', the last thing an end-user wants, is to be working in the middle of the software to be bombarded with popup messages, they will get frustrated and will be turned off by the application! If the checkbox was ticked, log it to a file instead...
• Keep the end-users informed of what error messages there will be...which implies...training and documentation...now this is a tricky one to get across...you don't want them to think that there will be 'issues' or 'glitches' and what to do in the event of that...they must not know that there will be possible errors, tricky indeed.
• Always, always, be not afraid to ask for feedback when the uneventful happens - such as 'When that error number 1304 showed up, how did you react? What was your interpretation' - the bonus with that, the end-user may be able to give you a more coherent explanation instead of 'Error 1304, database object lost!', instead they may be able to say 'I clicked on this so and so, then somebody pulled the network cable of the machine accidentally', this will clue you in on having to deal with it and may modify the error to say 'Ooops, Network connection disconnected'... you get the drift.
• Last but not least, if you want to target international audiences, take into account of internationalization of the error messages - hence that's why to keep it neutral, because then it will be easier to translate, avoid synonyms, slang words, etc which would make the translation meaningless - for example, Fiat Ford, the motor car company was selling their brand Fiat Ford Pinto, but noticed no sales was happening in South America, it turned out, Pinto was a slang there for 'small penis' and hence no sales...
• (ed)Document the list of error messages to be expected in a separate section of the documentation titled 'Error Messages' or 'Corrective Actions' or similar, listing the error numbers in the correct order with a statement or two on how to proceed...
• (ed) Thanks to Victor Hurdugaci for his input, keep the messages polite, do not make the end-users feel stupid. This goes against the answer by Jack Marchetti if the user base is international...

编辑:特别感谢 gnibbler ，他还提到了另一个极其重要的观点！

A special word of thanks to gnibbler who mentioned another extremely vital point as well!

• 允许最终用户选择/复制错误消息，以便他们愿意时可以将电子邮件发送给帮助支持团队或开发团队.

编辑#2:我的糟糕！哎呀，感谢 DanM ，他提到那辆车，我把名字混了，这是福特·平托...我的糟糕...

Edit#2: My bad! Whoops, thanks to DanM who mentioned that about the car, I got the name mixed up, it was Ford Pinto...my bad...

编辑#3:用 ed 突出显示，以指示其他内容或附录，并记入其他人的输入中...

Edit#3: Have highlighted by ed to indicate additionals or addendums and credited to other's for their inputs...

编辑#4:为了回应Ken的评论-这是我的看法... 不，不是，请使用中性的标准Windows颜色...不要选择浮华的颜色！坚持使用黑色文本的常规灰色底色，这是Microsoft规范中的常规标准GUI准则.请参阅

Edit#4: In response to Ken's comment - here's my take... No it is not, use neutral standard Windows colours...do not go for flashy colours! Stick to the normal gray back-colour with black text, which is a normal standard GUI guideline in the Microsoft specifications..see UX Guidelines (ed).

如果您坚持使用鲜艳的色彩，至少要考虑到潜在的色盲用户，即可访问性，这是另一个重要因素，适用于残障人士，屏幕放大友好的错误消息，颜色-失明，患有白化病的人，他们可能对华而不实的颜色敏感，以及癫痫病...他们可能患有可能触发癫痫发作的特定颜色...

If you insist on flashy colours, at least, take into account of potential colour-blind users i.e. accessibility which is another important factor for those that have a disability, screen magnification friendly error messages, colour-blindness, those that suffer with albino, they may be sensitive to flashy colours, and epileptics as well...who may suffer from a particular colours that could trigger a seizure...

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