How to get users to pay attention to problems?

Question

We occasionally need to notify users about warnings or problems. But often times, especially if it's a common problem, users will just dismiss the warning and continue. Often times users won't even remember seeing the warning, but we check their logs and see that several were displayed. So, how do you get users to pay attention when you're trying to tell them something important?

This isn't as simple as forcing users to resolve all problems before allowing them to save. They often need to save data that isn't strictly okay by our business rules for various reasons (usually for problems that can't be solved right away, or at all).

We've got a better warning/error handling system in mind that I think will help a lot, but I want to see what others have done.

Answer 1

If you want users to pay attention to warnings, use them in moderation!

The big problem with the UAC in Vista is that people are getting so many notifications, that they stop reading who is exactly requesting access to what, they just give permission without thinking.

Another example is the delete confirmation in explorer when sending files to the recycle bin. I got so used to just hitting 'Ok' immediately after pressing 'delete', that I missed the fact that the dialog was telling me that the file would not be moved to the bin, but deleted immediately, for whatever reason.

My personal fix: I disabled the delete confirmation for the recycle bin. If something can not be moved to the bin, I still get a message, and this time I know that it might be important, so I pay attention.

Conclusion: Don't spam the user with messages, or the important warnings will get lost in the noise.