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copy is the experience
You think error messages are small. They are the loudest moment in your product.
Users hit them at peak frustration and remember them at full volume. The cheerful onboarding copy is forgotten in a week. The error message that condescended is remembered for a year. We walk through the Maven UX rule: write the worst moment first, and watch the rest of the product get better. Includes ten error-message rewrites you can steal. Most product copy is bad because it was written in priority order, with the easy moments first. Reverse the order. Write the hard moments first. The product transforms.
Bad error message · good error message
| Bad | Good |
|---|---|
| 'Something went wrong' | 'We couldn't save that. Try again, or message us.' |
| 'Error 404' | 'That page doesn't exist. Here are three places that might help.' |
| 'Invalid input' | 'Try a number instead of a letter here.' |
| 'Unauthorized' | 'You need to log in first. Quick link →' |
The worst-moment-first rewrite
- List your top 5 most frequent error messages.
- Rewrite each with a human voice and a next step.
- Test in a hallway: would a frustrated user feel respected reading this?
- Push. Watch support tickets drop.
- Move to your second-worst moments. Repeat.
Error messages are the loudest moment in your product. They're also where most teams put the least love. Reverse that and watch your NPS rearrange itself.
— L.A. Walton, The Book Maven
From the Maven Catalog
- Master Course — UX as Story
- eBook — Write the Worst Moment First
- Toolkit — UX Writer's Toolkit
- Planner — UX Content Audit Planner
Rewrite the five worst messages this week. Human voice. Next step. Respect. The product transforms. Your support team sends you cookies.