Errors provide contextual and actionable feedback to help users resolve failures and avoid future complications.
Ensuring that they are designed well and include helpful error messages can aid in the conversations we want to have with our users.
If a full page or system is down, apologize, let a user know what’s going on, and then tell them how long you think it might take to resolve the issue.
If a user can’t access certain information, tell them why, or hide the component entirely if it’s not pertinent to their role. Provide a way to resolve access issues, if it’s possible.
When a user submits a form, if multiple required fields are not completed, page-level validation will inform a user to complete those required fields. The combined field-level validations should further describe the error in detail.
If a user enters an input incorrectly or fails to take proper action, alert them with red, in-line error messaging. Ideally, this messaging would show as a user is typing. See Input states for details.
Prevent errors ahead of time by identifying required/optional fields.
Do not | Do |
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We are sorry, but this Sponsor Code is not valid |
Sorry, but we don’t recognize this sponsor code. Check with your employer for more details. |
Fix errors below |
Please enter the information below to reconnect your account. |
Enter a valid Market Value. |
For Market Value, please enter only positive numbers. |
Invalid investment exclusion. |
You can’t exclude more than four investment options, because doing so will keep us from properly diversifying your account. |
Morningstar Security mapping missing, map your security. |
This investment doesn’t map to a Morningstar security, so please map it yourself. |
The security [Name] is already defined in client security master by security identifier as [ID]. Please either maps the imported security to another Morningstar security or as a user defined security. |
You’ve already mapped an investment to this Morningstar security. Either choose another Morningstar security, or don't map it at all. Add additional context that can help a user succeed, not create more errors. |
Enter balance |
Only numbers between $0 and $100,000,000, please. |
You’re not allowed to save that much into this account. |
You’re saving more than |
Invalid entry. |
For this account, you can't put in more than you make. |