HomeCheckpoint 7.6 - Mobile-PDA
Error messages are informative
WCAG 1.0 Priority 1
WCAG Guideline 14. Ensure that documents are clear and simple.
While navigating a mobile web site or application users will sometimes not be able to access informtion, whether it is not available or whether the user choice or input is incorrect. Error message must provide clear information regarding the fault that has occurred. It should also inform them whether the problem is temporary or permanent and if they should attempt to retry the action.
Requirement
Error messages are informative
Recommendation
All default error pages provided by the server should be overridden and replaced with user-friendly error message pages. Users should be make aware in the error message if they are able to solve the problems themselves, such as by changing the input data or modifying a handset setting.
Users need to be able to recover from an error condition, by retrying the action, going back to the previous page, going to the Home page, or moving forward to another page from where they can retry or alter the action they were performing. A Back link should be provided in case the Back button is difficult to locate on some mobile devices.
Error messages may provide an error code for diagnosis purposes, however the use of an error code is not a subsititue for a human-readable message.
Checking Tool
Enter incorrect information and URLs into fields to check the error message response. Verify that no technical knowledge is required to understand the error and the user knows how to recover from the error.
Information Source
The original source of this information is located on the W3C web site (www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10-TECHS/#tech-simple-and-straightforward)
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