I recently had the misfortune of being bucked off my horse and sent hurtling to the ground. As my trainer explained, I did not behave as my horse expected and clearly, neither did my horse behave as expected. As I analyzed the incident, I drew some parallels to the online world. I, as the user, erred and my horse, the medium, intolerant of my error, chose to react in a way it shouldn’t have - that is, to buck me off.

This experience translates to the online world as well. What if our users err and fail to behave as we expect them to on our sites and apps, and rather than guiding them via appropriate error handling and messaging, we simply throw them off the system. In this scenario, the system, too, would clearly fail to behave as the user expects it to. This is where customer experience management via intelligent design and usability come into play. Even the best designed sites and apps will have users whom will err and when that happens, we need to be prepared for that inevitability. On the flip side, however, the online system cannot afford to err. As a result, messaging that aids users to successfully complete their tasks such as an alert to the user of their error and guidance as to how they can course correct, makes for a more successful user experience. That way, both the site and user come out ahead!