Quote:
Originally Posted by MK
They know how to skim back the url in the bar to the homepage and start all over again.
|
No, they don't. Usability testing, and several years working in technical support has shown me that the average Internet user does not hack URLs; even if the user knows what the text in the address bar means, they will prefer to use the back button to go to a page they know than use trial and error to try to find what they are looking for. The typical consumer on the web wants to find what they want as quickly and easily as possible, without having to hunt around or edit URLs to find it. There are some exceptions to this... more technical users may be more comfortable hacking a URL, for example.
In addition, error messages can erode confidence in the web site. Users do not have much trust on the web. The faith they have in a site depends largely on how well they know the company that the web site represents. If you are a small business that the customer has never heard of before, the user is already coming to the site with a low level of trust, and each error that the user encounters reduces the chance that that user will place an order. A simple redirect or a "smart" error page can either prevent the loss of trust or recover the lost trust and keep the visitor much better than a generic error 404 message.