Final Example

Let's look at one last simple example regarding error message text. To the user, this error message

is very similar in tone to this error message:

A far better error message is something like this one:

Why is this message better? Take a moment and come up with all the reasons. I think it's a better error message for these reasons:

• It is more specific (in that it gives the filename and folder).
• It doesn't blame the user (for example, "You failed…").
• It uses the passive voice to avoid blaming the user.
• It doesn't use technical terms (such as file path).
• It doesn't use any words with all capital letters.

These small changes make a big difference.