Audit log messages

Purpose

Required outcomes included:

  1. Edit all user-facing audit log messages in the APEX Console so that they are concise and informative.

  2. Provide guidelines for creating future messages in the console as part of the handoff to development.

Overview

An audit log is a timestamped record of completed actions within the console for administrative record and review. Developers added all existing audit log strings to a table within Confluence, naming the action that returned the message. I split the messages into two groups: internally-facing messages and customer-facing messages. I edited over 50 messages total. Included below are 12 examples from the customer-facing group.

Approach

For user-facing audit log strings, I provided messages that succinctly contained all necessary information regarding actions and approvals for customer subscriptions. As audit logs are a timestamped record of every action taken in the console, message length was limited to critical information and optimized keyword search.

Because audit logs are often used for investigations, I strongly recommended including a link to a details page when referencing any IDs or invoice numbers.

Results

I provided the following guidelines to enable future writers to create consistent messaging:

  • Follow the format: Subject action object.

  • Use active voice and past tense.

  • Include invoice number for invoices and pre-invoices. Include the ID for order requests and subscriptions.

  • Use format <first name> <last name> for a user’s <full name>. Avoid ambiguous identifiers such as “user” or the name of user’s role to describe the individual taking action.

  • Flag the <full name> for internationalization so that names are formatted by locale by the global translation team.

Impact

Giving ownership to development teams creating system messaging has the following benefits:

  • Developers and technical UX writers can quickly create new content according to a standard, creating consistent messaging.

  • There are built-in considerations for global formats including names, dates, and times for new messages. This reduces internationalization errors caused by translation when API handling is preferred.

  • Messages contain critical information only, reducing cognitive load on administrators who maintain role-based permission access controls.