Lee Heidel

The Best Error Messages in the Galaxy

Best Error Messages in the Galaxy

Leave it to Star Wars to be awesome.

At first glance, the recently released Star Wars app for iOS seems like a pretty wrapper for some expected web services. There's a news feed (of course) and countdown clocks notating the seconds remaining until the upcoming films, video games and TV show launch. 

But with a bit of digging you'll find some excellent app-centric features like a selfie generator, soundboards, custom emojis and a lightsaber training game. There's even a weather emulator that compares your local weather to those of exotic Star Wars locales.

With so many things Star Wars, the attention to detail is what really sets this app apart. On launch, the user has the option to choose an optimized interface designed for the light side, dark side or droid. The color palette is adjusted and background images are accordingly swapped out. But the customization doesn't end there. It extends all the way to the error messaging.

Take for example the ubiquitous network error message. Here's a typical example. Lame, right?

typical-error.jpg

Star Wars has three different error messages to deliver depending on which side of The Force you've chosen in settings, all for the same technical glitch.

For the light side:

light-error.jpg

For the dark side:

dark-error.jpg

For the droid interface:

droid-error.jpgWho says error messages can't be fun as well as informative? These pop-up modals are on-brand, funny and make the best of a bad situation. 

At Heideldesign, we're not only looking forward to seeing The Force Awakens release this winter; but also to see how Star Wars continues to inspire with its technology, design and development choices.