Scenario: A user is shopping using a price comparison app that boasts “real-time” pricing on items. As they are checking the price of an item, something goes wrong. The problem is unknown.

Challenge: Write a message that informs the user that they cannot access the app right now. You cannot specify “why” the app doesn’t work, you also want them to continue using the app.

Headline: 30 Characters max
Body: 120 characters max
Button(s): 15 characters max

UX Challenge Solution

Something Isn’t Right

 

We currently can’t access real-time comparison pricing. Use the buttons below to retry or search smart pricing trends.

 

Retry | Smart Pricing

UX Challenge Scenario Reflection

This scenario reminded me of a tool I used to track the pricing of electronics after you had purchased them. The tool allowed you to buy something and receive a notification if there was a price drop. Some businesses will price match a purchase if there is a drop in price. You could enable the alert and passively wait for the notification, or you could manually enable a search. If the manually initiated search came up empty, the tool would display pricing trends for the last few weeks.

Having a fallback situation kept me engaged with the tool and not full of a sense of frustration that I was getting the second or third tier of data. Having a little bit of a redirect helped to soften the fall and kept me coming back.

UX Challenge Scenario Mockup