Error dialog

Source: CUA, Motif, Windows
Aliases: Error dialog (Motif); Critical message
(Windows); Exception or Error Message (CUA)
Related: Dialog box; Message
SCO Visual Tcl commands: VtErrorDialog, VtWarningDialog

Error dialogs are dialog boxes that notify users of serious problems requiring user intervention.

Use an Error dialog whenever user intervention for serious problems is needed.

In the example that follows, the user is prompted to try again by doing some action (entering a name). They click on OK and they are returned to the dialog for entering the directory name. (In other scenarios, a Cancel key would appear in the dialog box that would allow the user to abort.)

Characteristics

Error dialogs:

• appear in movable, unsizable windows

• are accompanied by a beep

• stop application processing until it is dismissed

• Phrase the dialog as a directive, not a question so that OK and Cancel make sense.

• Include an error symbol, a message (phrased directly as shown in example), and one of the following button arrangements if the user has the opportunity to go back and correct the error (desired). The interaction would be: OK, go back to the view that called the dialog, and try again.
  
  OK Cancel Help

  If the error needs to be corrected in the dialog, the user would select OK which would take them back to the dialog where they could make the correction.
  
  OK Help