The best way to show data entry errors

I created a VB.Net lending app for a cooperative that caters to widows. The app keeps track of loans and payments of members and is also used as an accounting system. In my first release, users felt that displaying messages every time an error occurred was very annoying. My solution is to output errors in the label control. Users accepted the modification, but I feel like I'm doing it wrong.

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They were probably annoyed by the modal dialog that interrupted their input stream. Imagine Word interrupting you every time you entered a word it couldn't find in the dictionary, instead of just underlining it in red and letting you fix typos later. You are typing rather slowly.



I recommend that you just highlight the typing errors and let them come back and fix them when they are done. If they try to submit the form (or whatever would be analog) then show the dialog and don't let them submit until they fix or validate the fields marked with errors.

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Start by manipulating another validation element, for example:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/validation/validationprovider.aspx



and then change it as needed. This works as Lizard suggests, with awkwardly flagging the offending fields.

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  • Can you highlight the fields containing errors and display the error message as mouse or hover text?

  • If appropriate, you can have a bright red button "Show Errors"

    somewhere that will display this nasty popup listing all the errors.

Bad Tip: Error messages are more useful if they tell the user how to fix the error, rather than what went wrong.

Good luck!

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