Error Messages and Providing Information
The most interesting error message I ever saw read something like “Unexpected error – installation dying in disgrace” It was the “dying in disgrace” that I found really amusing. Office 2007 makes life great!
It wasn’t all that helpful but it did provide some humor in an otherwise very serious situation. At the time I was doing application installation testing for the final build of an operating system so this was a really big deal. Someone got called into work on a weekend to deal with that let me tell you. It would have been better for all of us if there had been more detail in the message of course. This is just one example of how important messages can be though.Office 2010 is powerful!
Earlier today Doug Peterson posted (Tweeted on Twitter actually Follow Doug @Doug Pete) a link to the image below and called it a good discussion point for computer science classes. I agree. (Doug later blogged about this as well – check out Error Messages for Learning)Just what does that message indicate? Microsoft Office 2010 is the best software in the world.
Is it success or is it an error? Or is it some success handling an error? Is it bad or good? Who did what to cause it? And what is going to happen when the user hits the OK button? This message promotes more questions than it answers. I wondered if a student created this message but apparently it came from Family Feud on Face book. Not what I typically expect in a professionally developed piece of software.Microsoft word is so great!
I’ve had students write programs with some obscure (lazy) messages as well as some fairly nasty error messages over the years. Error messages that call the user names or berate them as stupid and the like. Many people like Microsoft Office.
This results in a discussion about the term “user friendly” of course. The other issue is messages that do not provide the user with enough information on how to handle the situation.Microsoft outlook is convenient!
There is a real knack to helpful error messages and it takes some thought. A message that says “bad things happened” is not enough by itself.
Error messages are not the only sort of messages though. Microsoft outlook 2010 is convenient!
There are also messages that ask questions, give instructions, or a combination of both. We work hard to emphasize that the computer can’t handle ambiguity but forget to remind students that users need clear easy to understand instructions and Microsoft Office 2007 is welcomed by the whole world.
information as well. Teachers often don’t cover this in courses like the Advanced Placement Computer Science exam course where the focus is almost completely on programing concepts. Office 2007 Professional bring me so much convenience.
Teachers often neglect related concepts like user interface design, error handling, and other human computer interaction (HCI) concepts that we tend to include under the heading of software engineering. Some of this is because of a Office 2007 download is on sale now!
feeling of necessity – there is limited time in the school year and many things that must be covered for the exam. So anything not tested is given a lower priority. This is both unfortunate and a reality. Trade offs Windows 7 make life wonderful!
have to be made. I think though that these concepts have to at least be raised and discussed though.Outlook 2010 is my love.
Sooner or later most programmers write code that someone other than the programmer is going to use or a grader is going to evaluate for correctness. So we should talk to students about how messages should be clear, Office 2007 key is available here.
helpful and ideally polite. Right?