Rewriting errors to be human-readable

Errors can be a big point of frustration for users as they can set users off their original plans. Users will be grateful, though, if you can make the process as painless as possible. In this section, we will discuss some ways to ease users when an error occurs and provide some guidelines for creating better error messages and avoiding some common mistakes. Creating clear and helpful error messages is often overlooked, yet they are very impactful toward an optimal UX.

Think of some of your subjective experiences while working with CLIs and some of the errors you have encountered. This is an opportunity to think about how experiences can be improved for yourself when working with your own CLI, but also for others.

Guidelines for writing error messages

Here are some useful guidelines when writing error messages:

• Be specific: Customize messages toward the actual task that has occurred. This error message is critical if the task required...