Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

Good

Google's Did you Mean?

Whenever you make a spelling mistake in your Google search it shows red text right under the search bar linking to results for what you meant to type. Clicking it is optional, just in case you actually meant to search what you type.

Bad

Windows File in use

When deleting a file Windows explorer will sometimes give the error that the file is currently in use by a program, but does not tell you what program is using the file.

Ugly

A photo of a mac kernel panicing with no further information given to the user

Your computer was restarted because of a problem

You thought the Windows BSOD was bad? I can respect mac kernel panics because they try to restart the computer as quickly as possible. (Good recovery)
The problem is that kernel panics on macs are almost always caused by hardware problems (like GPU failure historically). This fails at helping the user recognize that something is seriously wrong with their computer which caused the kernel panic. It also does a bad job telling them what is wrong.
The report option also does not help the user, it only sends the error report to Apple, but does not help the user diagnose the issue.

Back to home