Error Pages with Character

Error pages are often the most overlooked pages in terms of thought and design. Most of your users will never see an error page- so why ‘waste time’ thinking about it, right? WRONG.

While they may not get many page views (hopefully), people that do come across an error page  are at an important crossroads. They realize that you screwed up. They don’t know why, but this site you made just isn’t working. They aren’t getting the info they came for. They usually leave with negative feelings about your website and your company.

That’s how I felt that first instant I hit the error page on iStockphoto. The already  generally-slow-since-they-started-experimenting-with-AJAX-(-big-surprise-) site is once again not giving me what I wanted. Then I read the text:

“Now you’ve done it!

Oh wait, this is our fault. . . . .
We will be back online as soon as possible.”

Corny as it may be, that made me smile inside. I thought, “Hey, these guys screwed up, but they acknowledge that. And they provided a strange, but apologetic looking character to reinforce the point.” Then I thought, “This page obviously has some sort of virtual gloss applied to it because I see his reflection. I hope he doesn’t slip and fall.” See, I became empathetic to their situation.

So now I feel better about them not being able to make a site that works properly. And I will come back later and try again. Sort of because of this. But mostly because iStockphoto is awesome.