Page 404 / The only true playground for a UI/UX Designer

I’m sure all of you disagree.

I can almost hear the pitchforks rising.

But have a cup of tea, or coffee, or a drink.

Hear me out, think about it.

And then wage war, if you must.

I’ll be ready.

Hoping that the coffee settled you down, let me tell you why. The 404 page, regardless of how rarely you catch a glimpse of it, is the most important page of your website simply because it’s the lowest point you can reach with your audience. It’s not just an error page, it’s an apology. And as such, should be treated with the highest empathy.

When empathy comes from the most unlikely of places, that’s when you really know it’s genuine.

Sure, every single user who comes across it closes it in a second. But what happens when they do? They switch to the next tab. Congratulations, you just lost a customer.

I urge you to work on your 404 page with as much enthusiasm, if not more, as your homepage. Quite simply because it’s the last thing your audience sees or hears from you.

I am, by no means an authority. But to you, I could be anybody. I’m that boyfriend looking for a recipe to surprise my girl on our anniversary. I’m that uncle looking for gifts for his niece or nephew. I’m that product manager looking to improve my team. I’m that geeky kid from school who’s looking to learn everything about the coding universe.

I’m your audience.

And in that regard, I hold the highest authority over your content.

I’m confident everybody, no matter a CEO or a five year old, would’ve played the Google Chrome’s dinosaur game at least once. Forget what game it is, or whether it was fun or not. It kept you occupied when the internet went down. That’s what we aim to achieve here. And to get there, here’s what we could try:

• Genuinely apologize
• Show pictures of sad puppies apologizing
• Redirect them to other parts of your website
• Design a 404 page so amazing that they forget for a second they’re actually on a 404 page

This is the place you can go crazy, show who you really are as a brand. Ultimately, it falls to us as designers to really look into this problem.

If you think you have a fun idea that might spice up your 404 page, comment below and let everybody know!