Closed Bug 429683 Opened 18 years ago Closed 9 years ago

Use color to differentiate error pages from each other

Categories

(Firefox :: General, enhancement)

Product:
Firefox
Component:
General
Platform:
x86
All
Type:
enhancement
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED WORKSFORME

People

(Reporter: hunteke, Unassigned)

Details

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9b5) Gecko/2008032619 Firefox/3.0b5 Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9b5) Gecko/2008032619 Firefox/3.0b5 When I try to load a page and something goes wrong, such as I'm offline, or I've put in a bad server name, the simple error pages are lots of text. This is an added question mark, especially for folks who don't care /why/ something broke, just that it broke. I propose to style the error pages, if for nothing else than to make it easier to debug my friends' problems. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Type http://www.pqoweirutyasdfkljhzxcvmnb.com/ -> Address Not Found dialog 1. Try to access http://www.google.com/ while in offline mode -> Offline Mode dialog Actual Results: We get bland, white background pages with text. Expected Results: I think the simple error pages should have color themes. Offline could have a blue box in the upper right, or purple background. Address Oot Found could have a red circle or flashing text. Gawd, I'd hope you'd never do flashing text or a purple background (so yes, get a designer to help), but the advantages of styling the error pages are at least: 1. An end-user only ever has to digest the information once. As soon as the user sees the background color is red, the user immediately knows she typoed her url. That's an ounce less time than to read what the exact error was each time. It'll add up. (Read "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Crug about time adding up in this manner and why it's important to worry about small things.) 2. For non-computer oriented folks getting help from friends, having a theme would make it much easier to debug over the phone. "What color is the background you see now? Blue? Okay, uncheck work offline in your file menu."
OS: Linux → All
Summary: simple error pages need a little more sprucing → Use color to differentiate error pages from each other
Have had no comments on this bug/enhancement idea. I am mildly curious: what others think?
Version: unspecified → Trunk
The design of all error pages has been reworked (a couple of times?) by now. One of the latest might be bug 1217269, also more work has been done since, e.g. using new icons
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 9 years ago
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
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