"Users don't need or like detailed error messages. Just use a generic phrase like `an error occurred`. Visually it looks nicer and they won't read it anyway"

- Lead UI / UX Designer, large m.n.c, 10+ years experience

That guy isn't totally wrong, most of the time when people ask me for tech support(non professionally) they tell me "I was using x program and suddenly an error popped up and it stopped working, what is the problem?" When I ask then what the error said they don't remember. So I figure out it's not really important anyway.

@jsframework9000 opting to not tell anyone the actual reason, because a percentage might not read it, is definitely the wrong idea. You would be making assumptions about your user base.

Case and point, Microsoft received quite a bit of backlash here for their windows 10 update error message of "Something went wrong".

It serves no purpose to do something like that. If people are going to ignore it, then it doesn't matter what content is in it. You might as well put in a valid reason for the off chance you stop 1 extra phone call or email.

@practiseSafeHex "A team of highly trained monkeys has been dispatched" - youtube does it... (if youtube would jump of a bridge I'd follow ofc)

@stevenliemberg Theres a difference, yes many places will replace deeply technical issues with something funny rather than saying "A server 500 error occurred ...".

Thats fine (to a degree) if the user has no control over it. However in many cases (and mine above) these errors can be due to invalid user entered data, that can't be pre-validated.

In a case like this a user has no idea if their internet was down, if the server was busy, if it was them or the app. Seeing "oops something went wrong" may cause them to click "ok" and try again, and again, and then be left frustrated not knowing what to do ... driving traffic towards support, defeating the purpose of having an app.

In a case like this, thats just piss poor app design and nothing more.

Utter bollocks
- Another UI/UX designer

@stevenliemberg if you break it though they have a base64 code that your supposed to show the monkey though.

Perhaps at the end of your message have a little [read more] that displays a bit more info in case you need support or you want to diagnose it yourself.

Sometimes I will be using a application and it throws an error but doesn't tell me anything about it. If I know what it is, than I feel I can do something about it myself as well.

@eArshdeep The read more is an option yes. It personally pisses me off that when an error pop up occurs that I have to read it, and then interact with it to get anything useful out of it

Again back to, just put it front and centre, if some people are going to ignore it, then it makes no difference, make it nice for the users who need to know, not for the ones that dismiss it straight away

@practiseSafeHex Fair point. But it sounds like you can really go wrong with either direction now that we put it that way.

@eArshdeep I don't think so. People have forgotten what apps are for and why companies pay so much money for them ... to let the customer do it for themselves!

I've worked for a company that did outsourced apps for other big companies. They actually measure the successfulness of the app, by how much calls and emails to support drop. In some cases even by how long the phone call takes (as the app can explain things and provide extra data, reducing the call time).

They are not paying for the development of a backend and an app, doing all the planning and marketing so that users will end up calling the call centre.

If these companies saw "something went wrong", that was our contract gone.

They are also very aware of apples "one tap" mindset, and frequently ask to remove buttons, intermediary screens etc.