When writing an error prompt, how do we tell the user the error happens in a specific tab?

I think the weirdness you're encountering is that you're using technical speak to convey something to the user who doesn't need to know that.

To you this is a tab. While many (most?) people who use computers are familiar with tabs, they probably won't think of their spouse or child as a tab.

So use whatever term the program uses for each person (taking care not to confuse whatever term the program uses for the primary subscriber vs additional people).

• Subscriber
• Family member
• Member
• User name

For example, in the online program for my health insurance, the central location is called the "member account" and each individual is called the "patient."

Patient Robert Jones-Hernandez: Last name can only contain alphanumeric characters.

or:

Jones-Hernandez is not a valid last name. Please use only letters and numbers.

(Though why you would allow numbers and not hyphens is beyond me.)

Ideally, your program will give feedback before the user leaves that tab. Isn't there a submit button when adding a new patient? (Or when editing an existing patient.) Why would the user even be on a different tab when submitting changes?

But if for some reason this happens, just use the same terminology you use when getting the user to set up the different entries to begin with.

posted over 5 years ago

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Cyn‭

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