For years I have been trying to convince people not to use error messages but rather to interact and explain the problems. Misspell something in Google and it searches anyway, but also offers a link with the correct spelling. Have your cake and eat it, too.
Type "emotionl design" into the Google search field and it both returns whatever it can find and also asks:
Did you mean: emotional design
(Hyperlinked so that clicking on the blue searches for the suggested terms)Turns an error into a good feeling about Google. What a powerful idea! --- the same philosophy can be applied lots of places, by almost everyone. Eliminate error messages from your system. Always turn an error into an opportunity to help.
Don Norman, "Google's non-error Messages," In Praise of Good Design, jnd.org, found 22 Nov 2004.
