Summary: Not every text that lands in your pipeline is meant for storytelling and repackaging. Some are hard-coded walls—technical messages that stop progress cold. When a digital system throws a JSON error that says your balance is too low to process a query, there’s no soft landing. That message isn’t a story—it’s a stop sign. But behind that digital rejection lies something worth analyzing: expectations, friction, failure, and the human frustration of systems that feel indifferent. Let’s break it down practically, without sugarcoating, and see what this “non-story” really tells us about system design, user expectation, trust, and marketing’s job in bridging those gaps.
The Nature of the Message: Clarity, Not Communication
The JSON snippet in question wasn’t written for a person—it was written for a machine. Structured in a machine-readable format, it dropped a simple bomb: “Account balance not enough. Please recharge.” No warmth. No context. No guidance beyond one transactional direction—add money. Here’s the raw dysfunction: the communication assumes the user has context, emotional neutrality, and technical literacy. But does your customer see it that cleanly?
Chris Voss would ask: “How am I supposed to do that?” It’s a loaded question designed to flush out assumptions. So let’s reverse it: how is the user supposed to recharge—confidently—when the system tells them nothing else?
Function vs. Infrastructure: Where Communication Breaks Down
This isn’t about whether the system is functioning. It is. The JSON response did its job in machine logic. But the infrastructure failed the user. Why? Because what’s missing isn’t information—it’s empathy. It’s context. It’s the unspoken marketing contract that says: “We’re building something you can trust, even when things go wrong.”
When systems devolve to pure data messages without human context, the failure isn’t technical—it’s relational. Robert Cialdini’s work on persuasiveness tells us this: people comply when they trust. They act when they feel reciprocity, when they’ve made a previous commitment, and when they see others doing the same. None of that exists in this message. It’s code. Cold. Unceremonious.
Error Messages Are Marketing Messages
Blair Warren would scream this from the rooftops: even rejection is persuasion. Especially rejection. That moment when everything stops—that’s when the user is most vulnerable. Confirming their suspicion (“Ah, they only care when I pay!”), triggering fear (“Did I just lose progress?”), or even just irritating them into leaving. Every digital dead-end is a conversation someone forgot to finish.
Rewriting the textual impact of a JSON error may feel unnecessary, but think again. Here’s a better way to say what that machine just spit out:
“Looks like your balance isn’t enough for this request. Don’t worry—it happens. When you’re ready, you can recharge here. If you think we’ve made a mistake, let us know.”
Same function. Totally different feel. This rewritten copy uses strategic mirroring, softens the ‘no’ while still embracing it, and opens the door to possible dialogue. It also invites commitment through reassurance, not fear. This is negotiation applied to UX.
The Real Story: It’s Not the Message, It’s the Mindset
“There’s no main story to extract,” the original text says. But that’s not true. The story is the absence of story. It’s a reflection of systemic posture—the assumption that when a user hits a wall, they only need repair instructions. That’s wrong. They need orientation. They need to know where they are now, why they’re stuck, and what the road forward looks like. Especially if that road asks them to spend money.
From a marketing perspective, every interaction with a user is a small test of brand integrity. Did you treat them better when they were paying? Did you vanish when they weren’t? Do your systems reflect grace, or just policy enforcement?
What This Means for Digital Product Owners
If your application, SaaS tool, or platform pushes out pure mechanical errors, you’re leaving persuasion off the table. Worse, you’re breaking rapport. Fixing that isn’t expensive or difficult—it’s just a shift in mindset.
- Add plain-language layers to your errors. Not dumbed-down, just human.
- Give users a “next step” that doesn’t assume ideal behavior or perfect understanding.
- Use language that mirrors their potential concerns, such as confusion over billing or suspicion of being nickel-and-dimed.
- Open the door to questions. Add feedback links. Offer grace before automation locks them out.
Marketing Improves When Tech Stops Acting Like Tech
Let’s be blunt. Systems that only function for paying users without clarifying why they stop working aren’t efficient—they’re punitive. In Chris Voss’s terms, they’re negotiation dead ends. They don’t learn. They just throw up obstacles. And when your user hits them, you’ve not just lost functionality. You’ve potentially cost yourself future revenue, word-of-mouth, and goodwill.
So how do we move forward? By treating every system message as a small piece of the brand. Every technical moment is a marketing moment. Every user pause is a persuasion opportunity. When your system fails to run a query, that failure teaches you what kind of relationship you’re really building.
You don’t fix this by “adding personality” or slapping a friendly emoji onto error text. You fix this by asking: “What does this user need—emotionally and logically—to feel confident in staying here?” Strategic silence after an error gives space. The right words after that build trust. Don’t ignore the failure. Use it.
#UXWriting #HumanCenteredDesign #MarketingInTech #FailGracefully #PersuasiveSystems #ProductDesign #EmpathyInErrors #ClientExperience
Featured Image courtesy of Unsplash and Frederic Köberl (VV5w_PAchIk)
