> And since anticipating all outcomes is by definition impossible, Norman's advice is awful.
Yes, that's why I said that I read the advice as saying it should only be followed when you can provide help and insight. You don't have to do it in an all-or-nothing way.
You can have common problems with a helpful flow that tells the user how to fix them. You can have less-common problems which just show an error code. Removing the error without providing help is the problem here, and is the thing that I feel goes against the book's advice.
Yes, that's why I said that I read the advice as saying it should only be followed when you can provide help and insight. You don't have to do it in an all-or-nothing way.
You can have common problems with a helpful flow that tells the user how to fix them. You can have less-common problems which just show an error code. Removing the error without providing help is the problem here, and is the thing that I feel goes against the book's advice.