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Unfriendly Messages

Blogger just spat this message at me (my emphasis added):

> ### Internal Server Error
> The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
>
> Please contact the server administrator, support@blogger.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and **anything you might have done that may have caused the error**.
>
>More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Not only does this error message imply that *I* did something wrong, but it tells me about a server error log that I don’t have access to.

This is a prime example of why *everyone* in product development should be thinking about usability. “Internal” errors like this are usually the worst offenders when it comes to useful error messages.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 10th, 2005 at 1:40 pm and is filed under Usability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Unfriendly Messages”

  1. Scott Says:
    March 11th, 2005 at 8:19 pm

    Best… error message… evah…
    http://www.homestarrunner.com/systemisdown.html

  2. Jay Says:
    March 13th, 2005 at 9:19 am

    Classic.

    A perfect example of “if the user can’t solve the problem, you can at least entertain them”. :)

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