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Capterra Glossary
Haiku error messages are the result of a contest run by Salon.com that invited software programmers to replace the rather unhelpful Microsoft system error messages with Japanese haikus. Each haiku error message follows the structure of a haiku: three lines and 17 syllables with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third. Sometimes Windows programmers use haiku error messages as a fun, quirky way to tell a computer user that the instruction they have given their software solution can not be executed.
Small and midsize software companies can use haiku error messages as a replacement for the traditional, rather bland error messages that appear on user screens when a program can’t complete a user command. This helps software development companies inform their users of a system error in a way that is less impersonal and more humanistic.