Last night I was reminded why it’s important for web and software designers to incorporate user testing into the design process. This should even apply to those experienced designers at Google, that seem to have overlooked some basic principles of good design in the Gmail user interface.
Bad Error Messages
A family member was struggling with a basic task in Gmail. Sending an email. Attached to this email were a number of high quality digital photos. When they attempted to send this email the following error message was displayed.
The immediate reaction from the user was to try again, and again, each time the same error message appeared, and again, until finally the task was abandoned all together.
The reason this could be considered a bad error message is because it stranded the user, it told them a problem had occurred but did not explain how to fix it. From an experienced user’s perspective it might seem obvious to us that the email attachments had exceeded the 20mb limit imposed by Gmail. To an inexperienced user this information is not available. Yes, it’s available on one of the Gmail help sections. But as demonstrated by the user, they abandoned the task without even considering that there could be a solution.
By simply creating a link to this troubleshooting page from within the error message it would be one step towards a more usable design. A step further would be to provide the information in the error message itself. If the system can tell you the error code, surely it can advise you on a course of action.
Gmail has been in beta, and in development for many years now. Perhaps they should take a step backwards and resolve its basic usability issues before crowding the interface with even more features.
Gmail also seems to sometimes open emails that are incorrect in relation to the one intended… the troubleshooting page is also light on detail…
this is bad. it’ll cause frustration among Gmail users, and i was one of them.