Getting a message malformed error for variables

Configuration
1

getting this error message for my location tracking automation:

Message malformed: expected a dictionary for dictionary value @ data[‘variables’]

Here is my code:

alias: notify on zone enter/leave
trigger:
  - platform: zone
    entity_id:
     - device_tracker.life360_person1
     - device_tracker.life360_person2
    zone: zone.home
    event: enter
  - platform: zone
    entity_id:
      - device_tracker.life360_person1
      - device_tracker.life360_person2
    zone: zone.work
    event: leave
variables:
  - event: "{{ 'left' if trigger.event == 'leave' else 'arrived at' }}"
  - person: "{{ trigger.to_state.attributes.friendly_name }}"
  - zone: "{{ trigger.zone.attributes.friendly_name }}"
action:
 - service: notify.mobile_app_sm_n975u
   data:
      message: > 
        {{ person + ' ' + event ' ' + zone }}
 - service: notify.mobile_app_sm_n975u
   data:
      message: >
        {{ person + ' ' + event ' ' + zone }}

Where in the variables am I formatting it wrong?

2 
variables:
  event: "{{ 'left' if trigger.event == 'leave' else 'arrived at' }}"
  person: "{{ trigger.to_state.attributes.friendly_name }}"
  zone: "{{ trigger.zone.attributes.friendly_name }}"

Dictionary, not list …

3

Thank you! that removed the error but I did get another about the action data at 0 needing to be a string so I modified the message to this:

{{states('person + ' ' + event ' ' + zone')}}

FYI in case anyone want to use the code.

thank you again, @m0wlheld

4

Hu? Don‘t think that this will work, I guess you should use:

message: >
  {{person}} {{event}} {{zone}}
5

you’re right that doesn’t work. When I use yours, it doesn’t allow me to save so I don’t think that will work either. I tried what was originally in the code I posted but that gets this error:

Stopped because an error was encountered at January 27, 2022, 6:59:32 AM (runtime: 0.01 seconds)
template value should be a string for dictionary value @ data[‘message’]

not sure what would work. any help is much appreciated

EDIT: @m0wlheld your code did work. I just didnt have the spacing correct. Thanks again