The Little Error Message That Could
How a single error message was integral to building a UX Writing practice.
The Ask
Improve an error message for Digital Check-In.
Background
At the time of this project, the UX Writing Practice at The Airline was still very new. Given the size of the company, our team of content creators was small, and Product owners were in the habit of creating their own content. While a single error message might seem small, engaging a UX Writer was a big first step in growing the practice.
As a brand, The Airline has always been known for its friendly staff and Canadian kindness. One of their key values is to care from the heart. However, post-pandemic, they were faced with angry customers and long call wait times.
How it started
The Product Owner came across this error message and immediately flagged it as being unfriendly and unhelpful, both qualities that are off-brand. This error message occurred during check-in, a key part of the user experience. Users often feel rushed or pressured to complete their tasks quickly during check-in.
Process
I reached out to the Product Owner to understand exactly what was triggering this message. There are actually 3 scenarios that trigger this one message. I confirmed that we could serve a unique error message for each of these scenarios. I then collaborated with development and Product Owner to make sure what we were conveying was accurate and helpful.
What happened next
This seemingly simple fix to an error message was a springboard to creating awareness of the UX Writing practice. After presenting the case study to 300 individuals at an internal show and tell, the number of Jira tickets for UX Writing increased. We had previously looked at design tickets to identify the need for UX Writing, and now stakeholders were asking specifically for UX Writing. People started reaching out to learn more about UX Writing and how it could help their product. Digital Check-In became one of the biggest UX Writing champions and now has its own dedicated UX Writer. There was also excitement at an executive level about the practice, and UX Writing kicked off its own roadmap for the following year. One item on this roadmap is a complete audit of all error messages for an entire product at the request of a product owner.
