Error messages

The core rule

“Help me help you.” An error message’s entire job is stated in that line — it exists to get the reader unstuck, not to report a failure for its own sake.

Help the reader become aware of the error as soon as possible.

Display the error message as close to its source as possible.

Provide a message that helps the reader solve the problem.

Use sentence case for all messaging.

Sentence case, confirmed

The source states this plainly: “Use sentence-case for all messaging.” This is the first directly confirmed casing rule this documentation has for any content type, and it anchors the per-context model on Capitalization and punctuation — error messages are sentence case, in contrast to Button labels’ title case.

Constraints

ID	Constraint	Rationale
TITAN-ERR-01	An error is surfaced to the reader as soon as it is known, not deferred to a later step.	A reader who has already moved on has to backtrack to fix something that could have been caught immediately.
TITAN-ERR-02	An error message renders as close to its source as the composition allows.	A reader should not have to search the screen to connect a message to the thing it’s about.
TITAN-ERR-03	Error message content states how to resolve the problem, not only that a problem exists.	”Invalid” tells the reader something is wrong and nothing about what to do next — the same reasoning as TITAN-FLD-04.
TITAN-ERR-04	Error messaging is sentence case.	Directly stated in source.

Divergences, open decisions, and undocumented gaps for Error messages.

Why it works this way

Proximity and solution-orientation both serve the same goal: minimizing the distance between noticing a problem and fixing it. A message far from its source, or one that states a failure without a next step, both leave the reader to do work the message could have done for them — which is the literal meaning of “help me help you.”

Content

Error messages

The core rule

Sentence case, confirmed

Constraints

Gaps in the current rules

Error messages: open issues

Why it works this way

​The core rule

​Sentence case, confirmed

​Constraints

​Gaps in the current rules

Error messages: open issues

​Why it works this way

The core rule

Sentence case, confirmed

Constraints

Gaps in the current rules

Why it works this way