Knotch iPhone App - Confusing Facebook error message

Date: 05/04/2013

Knotch iPhone App (version 1.2.1)

This issue is a pet peeve of mine.

If you haven’t download the Knotch iPhone app yet, you should today.  It’s an interesting app where you can rate particular ideas or sayings and then share them.  It is interesting.

That said, they’ve got a bug with cancelling out of the Facebook permissions screen.  I’ve occasionally seen this on other apps.

If you cancel out of the Knotch Facebook permissions screen, you’ll be taken back to Knotch login screen.  You’ll see a very uninformative error message on screen, that displays as: “The operation couldn’t be completed. (com.facebook.sdk error 2.)”

This is like the default message when you don’t tell the app what to say.  It doesn’t make any sense to an end user.

Steps to reproduce this issue:

1.     Download the Knotch iPhone App (version 1.2.1)

2.     Launch the Knotch iPhone App

3.     Select “Login with Facebook”

4.     From the “Knotch would like to access our public profile…” permission screen, select “Cancel”

5.     Note the uninformative error message that reads: “The operation couldn’t be completed.  (com.facebook.sdk error 2.)”

Result:  Canceling out of the Facebook connect permission dialogue returns the user to the Knotch app with a very uninformative error message on screen

Expected:  The error message which mentions “(com.facebook.sdk error 2)” should be amended to something which makes more sense to the user  

Select "Login with Facebook"

Select "Cancel" from this screen....

Wanelo iPhone App: Confusing "parameters" error message from naming certain new collections

Date: 05/03/2013

Wanelo iPhone App (version 2.5)

I already know what you’re going to think.  So, I’ll say it out in the open right now.  This complaint of mine is NOT about functionality.

My complaint is about the actual text of an error message. 

If you haven’t tried the Wanelo iPhone App yet, youshould. 

The app does display an awfully uninformative error message, however.  If the user tries to name a new collection using certain characters (such as the dollar sign and the “+” symbol) from the iPhone keyboard, an interesting message appears.

An error message titled, “Oops!” appears, along with the sentence, “one or more parameters are missing to perform this operation”. 

This error message is confusing, and it sounds like something a computer would say.  Once again, this isn’t about functionality, most users aren’t going to have this problem.   My complaint is with the actual wording of the error message.

This is much easier to show than to describe, so please see the attached screenshots below.

Please Note: Interestingly enough, the same error message won’t appear if you double the input.  So, for example, a single dollar sign ($) will give you the error message, while two dollar signs ($$) will not.

Steps:

1.     Launch the Wanelo iPhone App (while signed into your account)

2.     Select the sunglasses and mustache icon, which will take you to a “YOU” page

3.     Select “+ Create a new collection”

4.     Enter in a single dollar sign ($) and select “Done”

5.     Note the error message which displays the sentence, “one or more parameters are missing to perform this operation”

Result:  Entering in a variety of single characters from the iPhone keyboard as the names of the “new collections” inside of the Wanelo iPhone app will result in a very uninformative error message

Expected:  Don’t care about functionality, the wording of this error message is extraordinarily vague 

Launch the Wanelo iPhone App while all ready signed into a working account....

From the "YOU" page, select "Collections".......

Enter in something like a single dollar sign.  

Confusing, confusing, confusing error message!

Vine iPhone App: Menu text disappears on the "Find People" screen

Date: 05/01/13

Vine iPhone App (version 1.1)

Description:

Very small, yet easy to reproduce bug with the latest version of the Vine iPhone app.  If you haven’t tried out Vine yet, you should.

This small bug is much easier to show than to describe, so please just take a look at the attached screenshots below.

It’s a menu bug.  There’s an easy way to a text to disappear.  It’s basically the Vine version of a bug that I recently wrote about the Wanelo iPhone app.  It is a common problem with iPhone apps.

From within the Vine app, head to your profile page.  You’ll see a rectangular settings button.  You’ll also see a button in the upper right hand corner of the screen.  Using two fingers, if you press and release these two buttons at roughly the same time, you’ll be taken to a “Find People” screen where the text is missing from the top of the screen!

This is hardly the most earth-shattering bug in the world, but I enjoy documenting these small bugs.  That was quite a long explanation for something that’s just as easy to show in screenshots. 

Here are the steps to reproduce:

1.     Download the latest version of the Vine iPhone App

2.     Head to the “Profile” page of your Vine profile

3.     Using two fingers coordinate pressing the rectangular “Settings” button and the “Find People” button

4.     Release the “Settings” button and the “Find People” button at the same time

5.     Note the missing “Find People” text at the top of the Find People screen

Result:  Pressing and releasing two buttons on the Vine profile page in the iPhone app will take the user to a screen where the text “Find People” has disappeared

Expected:  Menu text should never disappear from inside of the Vine iPhone App

Head to the "Profile" page inside of the Vine iPhone app.  Using two fingers, select and hold the two circled options above.  After holding these two options down, release.....

You'll be taken to this screen.  If you notice, the text "Find People" has disappeared and the arrow has changed....

This is how it usually looks.