Application: Is There A Problem Here?: Application

Showing posts with label Application. Show all posts

20131111

Problem ID: 4637041866802489877
Entered by: Ben Simo

One of my stuck Healthcare.gov applications is now MIA

One of my stuck Healthcare.gov applications that was throwing Javascript errors is now missing in action.

Opening the application gives me this mostly-blank page.

Edit

20110920

Problem ID: 3712825054380818973
Entered by: Ben Simo

Ultimate

How long should I wait for the error go away?

Go ahead, tell the user how to configure error reporting on the web server. This is useful. ;)

Edit

20110904

Problem ID: 1797290292882724663
Entered by: Ben Simo

Hey, there's a syntax error in your syntax error

@sh8kespeare tweets: Apple makes a grammatical error? Can you see it? Lol.

Edit

20110902

Problem ID: 6129878360291213952
Entered by: Ben Simo

The administrator has set your shell to an illegal value

@xbuzz tweets: Has anyone ever seen this error before?

Edit

20110329

Problem ID: 8330838200266608631
Entered by: Ben Simo

So, you've detected that I am simultaneously accessing a file with more than one application. You've detected that the file has been "changed by another application". I appreciate being asked if I want to reload the file after it has been changed in another application. However, I have one question.

Which application are you? You've failed to identify who you are. Perhaps you have the version of the file that I want to keep. If you are going to ask me if you should reload a file (and potentially lose any changes you may have in memory), please identify yourself.

Edit

20100201

Problem ID: 2468126752835325087
Entered by: Ben Simo

System error: 1814

Error 1814? What does that mean? Login to what service? Running the application as another user? What terminates?

Edit

20100115

Problem ID: 7501688042513587620
Entered by: Ben Simo

Context, Context, Context.

@jacksri: This error message might be slightly better than useless if I knew which app generated it.

Error messages that don't specify to what they apply aren't very helpful.

If I have to click Cancel to ignore, I'm not really ignoring it. Am I?

What is the difference between Yes and Cancel?

Edit

20100114

Problem ID: 6174999356080631461
Entered by: Ben Simo

Fatal Product Display Error

Tweeted by Florent.

I doubt they will sell many with a display model like this.

Edit

20100108

Problem ID: 8987970906880734407
Entered by: Ben Simo

Files in Use

I tell the CLUpdater program that it can install a patch and it tells me I have to close the CLUpdater program.

Are users expected to use task manager to install an update? Why do I have to manually kill the process that started the install that demands I kill the process that started the install process?

Edit

20100106

Problem ID: 4641287961754946557
Entered by: Ben Simo

To update, please quit the update before continuing with the update

martinbtt: Today's comedy error message

And what if I don't want to continue? I see no cancel option.

Edit

20100105

Problem ID: 9064221379360064619
Entered by: Ben Simo

The exception unknown software exception occurred in the application

Tweeted by TomasSedovic.

Edit

20100104

Problem ID: 8767934502647169626
Entered by: Ben Simo

Be sure to return the complete set of HTTP headers

jdgraffam: This error message is a little worrisome.

With error messages like this, it is no wonder people are intimidated by the machines.

Edit

20100103

Problem ID: 6324849633471746007
Entered by: Ben Simo

Division by zero

"Floating point division by zero error?!" - owenblacker

Will integer division by zero work? ;)

Will Windows Explorer recover from this divide by zero error if the user doesn't click the OK button?

Edit

20091229

Problem ID: 5865960620838175790
Entered by: Ben Simo

Application net_rim_bb_phone_app(54) is not responding

“Anyone else getting error 54 on .423 #onyx ?” - @lucky_49

Edit

20091221

Problem ID: 5774647074555489205
Entered by: Ben Simo

Did you just experience a problem reporting a problem?

Tweeted by jroth360.

Edit

20090512

Problem ID: 6652492075109784676
Entered by: Ben Simo

Have them rectify this

I encountered this visiting a marketing site of a big software development and testing tool vendor.

Are visitor's to the site expected to know the webmaster? What is the support number?

It says "please" but has a demanding tone with a word like "immediately" in the instructions.

Who uses the word rectify on a marketing site?

I can easily rectify this by going to a competitor's site.

Edit

20090313

Problem ID: 6475624278339639237
Entered by: Ben Simo

Completely remove what?

After upgrading Skype and launching the new version, the dialog below appears on my screen.

I didn't select an application to be removed. What is the 'selected application'? Is this even related to the Skype upgrade? What happens if I select No?

Edit

20090308

Problem ID: 8314546944735734347
Entered by: Ben Simo

The object is not responding

Tweeted by @bp

Yeap, it's still possible to bust Word and Excel with, basically, Copy and Paste. The clincher is this error message (Where's the "Cancel"?!)

Where is the cancel? And click OK to wait?

Edit

Software testing tools: Heuristics for recognizing problems.

Usability Heuristics

from Jakob Nielsen

• Visibility of system status Visibility of system status: The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.
• Match between system and the real world Match between system and the real world: The system should speak the users' language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.
• User control and freedom User control and freedom: Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.
• Consistency and standards Consistency and standards: Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.
• Error prevention Error prevention: Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.
• Recognition rather than recall Recognition rather than recall: Minimize the user's memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.
• Flexibility and efficiency of use Flexibility and efficiency of use: Accelerators -- unseen by the novice user -- may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
• Aesthetic and minimalist design Aesthetic and minimalist design: Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
• Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors: Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
• Help and documentation Help and documentation: Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user's task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.

Consistency Heuristics

from James Bach
and Michael Bolton

-F amiliar Familiar: The product is not consistent with the pattern of any familiar problem.
E xplainable Explainable: The product is explainable.
W orld World: The product is consistent with the real world.
H istory History: The present version of the product is consistent with past versions of it.
I mage Image: The product is consistent with an image that the organization wants to project.
C omparable Products Comparable Products: The product is consistent with comparable systems.
C laims Claims: The product is consistent with what important people say it’s supposed to be.
U ser Expectations User Expectations: The product is consistent with what users want.
P roduct Product: Each element of the product is consistent with comparable elements in the same system.
P urpose Purpose: The product is consistent with its purposes, both explicit and implicit.
S tatutes Statutes: The product is consistent with applicable laws.

FAILURE Heuristics

from Ben Simo

F unctional Functional: The error detecting, reporting, and handling functions properly.
A ppropriate Appropriate: Errors are reported at the appropriate time in an appropriate manner.
I mpact Impact: The impact of the failure is communicated to those impacted.
L og Log: The error is appropriately logged; or not logged.
U ser Interface User Interface: The error is reported in the user interface in terms that the user understands.
R ecovery Recovery: The user is informed of what they need to do to recover from the error.
E motions Emotions: The error handling and reporting has a positive influence on user emotions.

Security Vulnerabilities

the OWASP Top 10

1. Injection Injection: Injection flaws occur when untrusted data is sent to an interpreter as part of a command. The attacker’s hostile data can trick the interpreter into executing unintended commands or accessing data without authorization.
2. Broken authentication and session management Broken authentication and session management: Application functions related to authentication and session management are often not implemented correctly, allowing attackers to compromise passwords, keys, or session tokens, or to exploit other implementation flaws to assume other users’ identities.
3. Cross-Site Scripting Cross-Site Scripting (XSS): XSS flaws occur whenever an application takes untrusted data and sends it to a web browser without proper validation or escaping. XSS allows attackers to execute scripts in the victim’s browser which can hijack user sessions, deface web sites, or redirect the user to malicious sites.
4. Insecure Direct Object References Insecure Direct Object References: A direct object reference occurs when a developer exposes a reference to an internal implementation object, such as a file, directory, or database key. Without an access control check or other protection, attackers can manipulate these references to gain unauthorized access to data.
5. Security Misconfiguration Security Misconfiguration: Good security requires having a secure configuration defined and deployed for the application, frameworks, application server, web server, database server, and platform. Secure settings should be defined, implemented, and maintained, as defaults are often insecure. Additionally, software should be kept up to date.
6. Sensitive Data Exposure Sensitive Data Exposure: Many web applications do not properly protect sensitive data, such as credit cards, tax IDs, and authentication credentials. Attackers may steal or modify such weakly protected data to conduct credit card fraud, identity theft, or other crimes. Sensitive data deserves extra protection such as encryption at rest or in transit, as well as special precautions when exchanged with the browser.
7. Missing Function Level Access Control Missing Function Level Access Control: Most web applications verify function level access rights before making that functionality visible in the UI. However, applications need to perform the same access control checks on the server when each function is accessed. If requests are not verified, attackers will be able to forge requests in order to access functionality without proper authorization.
8. Cross-Site Request Forgery Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF): A CSRF attack forces a logged-on victim’s browser to send a forged HTTP request, including the victim’s session cookie and any other automatically included authentication information, to a vulnerable web application. This allows the attacker to force the victim’s browser to generate requests the vulnerable application thinks are legitimate requests from the victim.
9. Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities: Running software components with known vulnerabilities can compromise the vulnerable components and anything those components can access -- undermining defenses.
10. Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards: Using untrusted data, without validation, to determine the destination of redirects and forwards can enable attackers to redirect victims to phisihing or malware sites.

20131111

20110920

20110904

20110902

20110329

20100201

20100115

20100114

20100108

20100106

20100105

20100104

20100103

20091229

20091221

20090512

20090313

20090308

Problem or no problem?

Usability Heuristics

Consistency Heuristics

FAILURE Heuristics

Security Vulnerabilities

Popular

Recent Problems

Recent Comments