In this article
Error messages are usually written by developers for other developers. But on Instaustad, error messages are a core part of the user experience. When something goes wrong, how we tell you about it matters.
If you paste a link and see "Error 400: Invalid Input," what does that actually tell you? It tells you the computer is unhappy, and it implies you did something wrong. But it doesn't help you fix it.
Our Rule
Help the user, don't punish them with jargon.
Actionable Errors
There is a big difference between telling someone what went wrong and telling them what to do next. We try to write messages that say things like, "That doesn't look like a valid link. Make sure you copied the whole URL."
We test our error states just as rigorously as our success states. We intentionally break the tool during testing just to read the error message. If the message makes us feel dumb, we rewrite it.
Learning from Feedback
In an early version, if a post was deleted, our backend returned a generic "Not Found" error. Users thought the tool was broken. We rewrote it to say: "We couldn't find this post. It might have been deleted, or the account might be private." That small change drastically reduced the number of emails we got about the tool "not working."
Building Trust
A confusing error message can make someone distrust the tool entirely. If they don't understand why something failed, they won't use it again. By taking the time to write clear, human-centered error messages, we show our users that we respect their time and are genuinely trying to help them get what they need.
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