Chapter 8. Handle Errors Wisely
• Prevent and Catch Errors with Poka-yoke Devices
• Write Error Messages That Help Instead of Hurt
We like for things to go smoothly. When we use applications, we don’t want intrusive errors popping up to tell us how dumb we are for having tried to do something that the system can’t handle. We don’t want to be interrupted. We don’t want to know the system doesn’t work. And we definitely don’t want to be blamed for its shortcomings by an error message that tells us we did something wrong.
Our users don’t want these things either.
When we perform a task in an application that results in an error message, we blame ourselves. After all, we’re the ones not smart enough ...
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