I hear (see?) what you’re saying, Lynn, but all too often the user has a specific error message pop up, and they either immediately close it (or hit “OK” or “Cancel” or whatever), or just refuse to actually read the message verbatim for obscure reasons of their own. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
It goes like this:
Tech: “Do you see an error message?”
User: “Yes.”
Tech: “Can you please read it to me?”
User: “It says it doesn’t work.”
Tech: “No, I need the actual error message. Did a small window pop up that says ‘Error’?”
User: “Yes, the error message popped up right away.”
Tech: “Ok, can you tell me exactly what the error message says?”
User: “It says it doesn’t work.”
Lather, rinse, repeat.
ETA: I forgot to add the incessant clicking and typing you’ll hear in the background.
I get this too. :rolleyes: The customer will call and say there was an error message. I ask for the details of the message and they will say “Well I closed the window and my computer isn’t on now, but I can bring it back up if you want.” Well duh, I sort of need to know the error message to have ANY CLUE what’s wrong. So then we have 2 minutes of small talk while their computer boots up. :smack:
I don’t know what they think. “Oh, you have a problem with your computer? Well hit the sooper-sekrit key code Control-Alt-Shift-F-I-X and all your computer problems will magically be fixed. Thanks for calling Acme Corporation.”
I work for a utility company. I have the following conversation far too often.
Customer - “I don’t know how to read the meter.”
Me - “I’ll talk you through it. Can you see the meter?”
Customer - “Yeah”
Me - “Can you see some numbers?”
Customer - “Yeah”
Me - “Read them.”
Truly, some users become completely illiterate when it comes to reading error messages. All too often I get e-mails saying “Got an error on a patient.”
Especially when you tell them to type something simple, like “edit” or “select”, and you hear them typing something that must be a novel.
Making an error message behave in exactly the way that normal interaction with the software and operating system is just begging for average users to respond in the same way, which is to do whatever they normally do to close the dialogue box and return to familiar territory, or perhaps shut the system down, and then call for advice. It’s not their fault that something counterintuitive, i.e. freezing in their tracks, is needed.
Put it this way: they’re behaving in the same way as they would if they noticed their brakes weren’t working quite right while driving. Pull over somewhere safe, perhaps shut the engine off, then ask for advice.
I do the support for a banking website, so I get all sorts of interesting phone calls. The one that sticks out was one of our least tech savvy customers. I was trying to get her to find her IE icon.
Me: We’re looking for a icon that is a blue ‘e.’ Do you see it?
Cust: No.
Me: OK, what’s currently on your desktop?
Cust: My mouse and keyboard… and a lamp.
Me: head down on desk
Except no one was ever killed by a computer error message.
However, if your brake light goes on, you don’t say to the repair shop “Something is wrong with my car; one of the dashboard lights came on.” You at least are expected to tell them which one.
In addition, computer error messages have readable text. Why is it there if not to read it?
I agree, but your average computer user is a creature of habit. If anything goes wrong they get scared and want to get out. They think when there’s an error they’re going to blow up their computer or a nearby power plant or something!
To veer this away from a completely IT/tech support type of thread:
I wait tables at a steakhouse. I go through one of the following exchanges far too often:
Redneck: This steak has way too much fat in it!
Me: Well, you ordered the ribeye, which has a lot of marbling.
Redneck: Well I didn’t know that meant fat! Get me a new steak!
or
Dumbass: This steak isn’t anywhere near as tender as the last one I got!
Me: Did you get the sirloin last time?
Dumbass: No, the filet! Why isn’t this as tender as the filet?!
Dumbass redneck: I’ll have gravy on my mashed potatoes.
Me: Well actually, we don’t have gravy.
Dumbass redneck: Well that’s stupid. I want gravy! Why don’t you have gravy?
Me:…I’m not in charge of the menu, sir. Sorry.
Dumbass redneck: Well tell someone to get gravy.
Oh, I don’t know about that. I recently received a super-sized gas bill because the regular meter reader read a “7” as an “8”, so apparently it’s not as easy as it looks, I guess.
Back when I worked a summer as a supermarket cashier I had to often tell people that I could not accept Brand X coupons for Brand Y products. One guy challenged me to “take it outside” over this misunderstanding. I shoulda told him “you won’t get your ten cents off there either.”
[sub]Yep, he really did threaten violence over ten cents.[/sub]
I get this with logon errors. I don’t know how many times a day someone calls because they get “an error” when they try to log in. I ask them what error they get, and they say “It says it’s invalid”.
sighWhat is invalid? The user id or the password? (Yes, the error message always specifies which one). True, it’s only one question I have to ask to figure out what they need. But it starts to grate on you after a while.
No, but the behaviour is the same - stop what you’re doing, turn off/put away/shut down, seek help.
The difference is that error messages on computers often say things that are outside the vocabulary of the average user. Hence the above behaviour.
Look at the amount of other stuff on the screen which users do not need to read. Even on the web page I’m typing this on, there’s plenty of stuff which most people safely ignore, and one of the subconcious filters is whether it’s something they actually understand: ‘Automatically parse links in text’, ‘BB code is On’, etc.
Edit:
I can certainly see how it grates - but think about how people use ‘login’ as a noun, as shorthand for ‘username and password’. Being told that either their username or their password is invalid equates to ‘it’ being invalid.
So? A warning from the IRS is also outside the vocabulary of the average user, yet they would call their tax preparer and read what it says, won’t they? And just because you get junk mail that you don’t have to read, you do read the IRS letter.
Stop what you’re doing? Fine. But how is closing the window without reading it stopping what you’re doing? If you stop what you’re doing, you leave it up! It requires extra effort to hide it.
Don’t be so hard on the guy. Remember the stupendous conversation in Scotland decades ago:
Customer: Where’s the gravy on my Chicken Tikka?
Waiter: Sorry Sir, but it comes straight from the clay oven that way.
Customer: Well that’s stupid. I want gravy! Why don’t you have gravy?
Waiter: Let me speak to the chef.
(Chef discovers he only has tomato soup, cream, marsala…)
Waiter: Here you are Sir - Chicken Tikka with sauce!
Customer: This is delicious! What’s it called?
Waiter: Errr … Chicken Tikka Massala?
What about when you ask what the error message is and state that you need to know exactly what it says and they reply with, “You don’t need that. All you need to know is that it doesn’t work.”
Well, all you need to know is that you won’t get it fixed, then.
