Great 404 pages
What’s a 404
404 is a technical error message from HTTP
Error code 404 means: “Not found”
404 error pages are a last resort—your user should, ideally, never see it
Other HTTP status codes
200 — “OK”, page is found and sent
301 — “Moved permanently”, you’re getting redirected to another URL
401 — “Unauthorized”, page is password protected
500 — “Internal server error”, the server ran into a problem
Great 404 pages are…
Helpful — Explain to the user what happened, how to solve it, hints at where to go
Fast — Don’t make the user wait for the 404 page to load, they already can’t get what they want
Fun — Getting a 404 sucks, have some personality and fun for the user