Nospaceformistakes

Such a simple error, with such grand repercussions. Assur O’ Poil is a pet insurance company, here in France. Today I needed to send them my proof of payment for my cat’s vaccinations. A quick look on their site shows a straight forward method of how to start the process; “Then send it by email to the addressfeuillesdesoins@assuropoil.com”. Unfortunately, due to one tiny typo in this sentence, there is quite a severe error in the user experience flow. By copying and pasting this address, I received a bounce back email saying that the address did not actually exist. On closer inspection, I see that they are miss a space after the word address and before the actual address! This miniscule error has completely thrown off the whole page and I’m sure I’m not the first disgruntled or confused customer to spot this.

Key Heuristics to remember…

“Software should have common sense” - Alan Cooper

“Recognition rather than recall” - Jakob Nielson

Solution…

Check. Your. Copy. Every piece of copy needs to be scrutinised and double-checked. The UX designers and copywriters working on this page need to be able to look at this information with fresh eyes, as if they are a customer and really think “does this all make sense? Is this completely correct?” It was a complete flow killer and wasted my time - checking the email and having to dechiper for myself what the actual email address probably should be. Not a great experience!