404 page

After incorrectly entering a URL slug on my library’s website, I found a blunt “404 error” page. Knowing the patrons I worked with, I knew this page would be a dead end for many users.

Before I knew what UX writing was, I was serving as the usability, accessibility, and information architecture lead for the library’s website redesign, and I knew this page needed to be redone.

"404 error" is meaningless to a lot of users, so I knew we'd want to explain what the error is and offer the users steps forward. We embedded our main search bar that allows users to toggle between searching the library’s website or its catalog. Looking at similar pages for text to emulate, I also knew I wanted to keep the apology, so I came up with “We’re sorry. The page you are looking for does not exist. Try searching the website or contacting the library.” The phrase “contacting the library” would hyperlink to our “Contact Us” page.

The IT team recommended redirecting incorrect URLs to the home page, but I advised against it because I assumed that would be more frustrating than getting an error page because at least with the error you know something is wrong with that page, not the website itself if you expected to go to one page and landed on the home page.

Looking back at this copy, I see many opportunities for improvement, but this was one of my first published pieces of UX writing. In an effort to improve this page, I employed skills that I didn’t even know had names: competitive analysis, UX evaluation, user research, and justifying your recommendations to stakeholders–all skills I use constantly as a UX writer.