simplifying technical error messages

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Businesses use ACH (Automated Clearing House) to electronically pay vendors and employees. Payments through ACH can be extraordinarily detailed, with a wide margin of error. File uploads require very specific naming conventions otherwise payments won’t go through.

We defined ACH’s voice and tone as professional and direct, spoken in clear, simple language. In general, the UX writing team at Chase strives to eliminate bank jargon, but there are exceptions, especially for our higher earning and financially fluent clients. Business owners are moving thousands of dollars into other accounts, so it’s understandable if they find friendly and excessively casual language a distraction.

Click or tap to make the wireframe examples larger. The left screenshots are original product copy and the ones on the right contain my revisions.

Partners

  • ACH product owner

  • Researcher

  • Designer

  • BSA + scrum team

  • Legal

The error codes are important, and having the code is the difference between a shrug and a solution. Per ACH regulation, every error has a standardized reference code (i.e. “Error code: R23”). Additionally, the Chase call center categorizes by error codes when business owners phone for help.

The simplified error messages I wrote are succinct and provide clear action items for the payer. The language still contains technical ACH-specific jargon, as the payers already have base-level knowledge of this complex payment system.

Business results

ACH Payments brought in $4.4b with 1.2m transactions and ACH Collections had $191m with 2m transactions for business banking. For commercial banking, ACH Payments had $8.3b with 7.1k transactions and ACH Collections had $29m with 8.1k transactions. The ACH team reported that these clear error messages were a success; the help hotline had a 43% decrease in phone calls. Business owners feel empowered to solve their file upload issues.

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content design

  • Webex’s Content Design team

    • introducing Webex’s voice and tone

    • updating Webex’s voice and tone

    Momentum Design System

    • creating a content design system

    • implementing a content-ready checklist for designers

    Write Like Webex

    • supporting and rolling out Webex’s gen AI writing tool

ux writing

  • Control Hub

    ⭐ revamping and restructuring organization settings

    ⭐ creating a Getting Started guide

    ⭐ crafting a gamified security coach

    Partner Hub

    ⭐ revamping and restructuring organization settings

    ⭐ creating a Getting Started guide

    ⭐ crafting a gamified security coach

    Contact Center for admins

    ⭐ revamping and restructuring organization settings

    ⭐ creating a Getting Started guide

    ⭐ crafting a gamified security coach

    Cisco Unified Identity

    ⭐ revamping and restructuring organization settings

    ⭐ creating a Getting Started guide

    ⭐ crafting a gamified security coach

  • Business & Commercial Banking

    ⭐ building a new one-stop shop

    ⭐ redesigning a product due diligence questionnaire

    ⭐ simplifying technical error messages

    ⭐ humanizing technical help & support guides

conversational
design

content strategy

product copywriting