: When writing an error prompt, how do we tell the user the error happens in a specific tab? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tab_(interface) I have made a medical record application that allows someone

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I think the weirdness you're encountering is that you're using technical speak to convey something to the user who doesn't need to know that.

To you this is a tab. While many (most?) people who use computers are familiar with tabs, they probably won't think of their spouse or child as a tab.

So use whatever term the program uses for each person (taking care not to confuse whatever term the program uses for the primary subscriber vs additional people).

Subscriber
Family member
Member
User name

For example, in the online program for my health insurance, the central location is called the "member account" and each individual is called the "patient."

Patient Robert Jones-Hernandez: Last name can only contain alphanumeric characters.

or:

Jones-Hernandez is not a valid last name. Please use only letters and numbers.

(Though why you would allow numbers and not hyphens is beyond me.)

Ideally, your program will give feedback before the user leaves that tab. Isn't there a submit button when adding a new patient? (Or when editing an existing patient.) Why would the user even be on a different tab when submitting changes?

But if for some reason this happens, just use the same terminology you use when getting the user to set up the different entries to begin with.

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I'd imitate the style of stack traces. Go from most generic to most specific, provide as many details as possible, and most importantly, try to suggest a solution!. A "maybe you meant..." prompt, or something. The user will appreciate it.

You can do something like:

Error: invalid data has been provided.

Location:

Inside window titled: John Doe
Inside tab named: Jane Doe (2nd tab from the left)
Inside field: Date of birth
Inserted data: May 21, 1975

Additional details: the expected format for the "Date of birth" field is YYYY-MM-DD.

I wrote "Patient's relative" under the assumption that tabs always represent relatives.

In any case, the idea is that you shouldn't give the user technical terms, but rather, you should guide them through the GUI, through what they can see on screen. "Point at the screen" using words.

A better solution would be, if possible, in-place validation. If an user inputs invalid data in a required field, prevent them from submitting the information until they've fixed it, and display something next to the input, in an eye-catching color, that details what format the data should be in, such as:

Name: Jane Doe

Date of birth: May 21, 1975 [INVALID FORMAT: this field must be in the YYYY-MM-DD format] (in red)

Finally, you should be asking the folks at the UX (User Experience) StackExchange forum, since this is more of a software development question, rather than writing.

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