Comment 1 for bug 1748115

Thinking more broadly, I'd suggest that this bug highlights an overarching concept...

In terms of user-friendliness as a key design principle, it'd be a good idea that wherever possible, any given error message does as many of the following as is viable in that specific situation:

1) At a minimum, explain what caused the fault. As one way to illustrate this concept, it's not enough for an image viewer to say 'cannot open file' when trying to open an image file. Ideally it should say WHY it cannot perform the desired task - e.g. 'file type <.XYZ> not supported', 'file size exceeds <X size>', or whatever.

2) Suggest one or more troubleshooting steps in plain language, or some form of alternative / workaround. Where needed, this may involve linking to a URL for more info.

3) Enable a one-click automated error report / crash report, possibly with the option for the user to add explanatory comments, to be sent to the devs so as to better diagnose the cause of the fault, and to fix the issue for everybody affected.

I'd point to both Firefox and Chrome, and particularly Firefox, as good exemplars of the above principles. See for example the dialogue boxes which appear when the browser hangs or crashes, or when you try to connect to URL while offline.

Thanks,
Ken.
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