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User manuals have a bad reputation. In a recent USA Today poll that asked readers "Which technological things have the ability to confuse you?" user manuals came out top! Increasingly companies are rethinking the way they approach user manuals. Here are some suggestions for improving the usability of user manuals based on our experience writing them.
Photo by Fernando Venzano on Unsplash
These guidelines are based on:
We have arranged the tips into the following sections:
Many users never actually get as far as the user manual. It is often tossed aside as being either secondary, or just too difficult to deal with. When this happens, the user, the product and the writing team all suffer in some way. In order to get past this point the user manual must make a strong and positive first impression. These guidelines can help.
Users quickly get frustrated when they cannot find what they are looking for in the user manual. Often this is due to the fact that the key words the writer has used are not the key words that users may search for. Here are some guidelines that will help users find what they are looking for.
Clearly this is the primary role of the user manual. It is critical that the instructions are easy to read and are understandable by all users. Many user manuals have instructions that are incomplete, incorrect, or simply have no bearing on the actual product. Here are some guidelines to help make instructions easy on the user.
In addition to effective instructing, the use of colour, the text and fonts used, and the icons and graphics can all either make for an easy experience or can derail the user. Here are some suggestions.
User manuals are used in many different kinds of environments: they may be used indoors or outdoors, they may be used with good light or with dim light, they may be used in a comfortable and user friendly setting or in an environment that is hostile or even dangerous. Here are some basic guidelines to ensure your user manual will survive actual use.
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Dr. Philip Hodgson (@bpusability on Twitter) has been a UX researcher for over 25 years. His work has influenced design for the US, European and Asian markets, for everything from banking software and medical devices to store displays, packaging and even baby care products. His book, Think Like a UX Researcher, was published in January 2019.
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This article is tagged layout, navigation, user manual.
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