When Life Gives You Lemons, Write Better Error Messages

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What makes a good error message An error pop-up demonstrating a good error message with each section highlighted to show why it’s better than the bad example. “Unable to connect your account (explains what happened). Your changes were saved (provides reassurance), but we could not connect account due to a technical issue on our end (explains also why the error happened). Please try connecting again (displays empathy and helps the user fix the issue). If the issue keeps happening, contact Customer Care (gives the user a way out (View Highlight) UX / Error Messages


We were being a bad friend. At Wix, we have the mantra, “Write it like you’re talking to a friend.” We really believe in empathizing with the user, and being a friend with them throughout their process. (View Highlight)

Messaging & tone “Write it like you’re talking to a friend”