Is your 404 page usable enough?
Posted: March 6th, 2009 | Author: Adrian | Filed under: Errors, Patterns | Tags: 404, Errors, Patterns | No Comments »There are lots and lots of articles on 404 pages and creative solutions for that. I was reading (looking at it to be more exact) today a post on Pattern Tap and i thought: What is a common user thinking when he sees online gaming:
“404 – Please update your bookmarks”
The common user has no freakin’ idea what “404” means.
The rest of the message is confusing also: “Please update your bookmarks“. Huh? bookmark? what bookmark? my bookmark? what’s a bookmark? Have i done something wrong? Is it me? Oh man, i fucked up LoL, didn’t I?
The 404 message must be clear: “The page you’re looking for does not exist, either you came on a broken link or the page was deleted in the meantime” or something like that, in plain english so your mother could understand it.