“Try again” can be the wrong thing to tell someone

After a transfer times out, first find out whether it went through.

A question-mark receipt and a guarded transaction token illustrate checking an uncertain result before attempting an action again.

One of the rules in the customer-experience cookbook I rewrote is to keep the context after an error. The person shouldn't have to start the whole task again.

Take a transfer that times out after confirmation. We already know the recipient and the amount. What we don't know is whether the transfer went through.

At that point, “Something went wrong. Try again” is a poor answer. First we need to check the result. If the transfer went through, show it. If it failed, keep the details for the next attempt. If we still don't know, say that and give the person somewhere to check later.

I care about this because it's easy to finish the error message and leave the rest of the scenario unresolved. The text might be fine, but the person is still sitting there wondering whether they sent the money and whether pressing the button again will send it twice.