Users don't always know what they want and their opinions can be unreliable — so we help you get behind your users' behaviour. Comment, share or save this article opens a new browser window. Photo by Fernando Venzano on Unsplash. About the author. If you liked this, try… Help! What The Beatles can teach us about writing support material 37 usability guidelines for help, feedback and error tolerance 23 writing and content quality usability guidelines Red route usability Usability Test Moderation: The Comic See all usability articles and resources.
Download the best of Userfocus. For free. Jun 5: Why you don't need user representatives May Should a design agency test its own design? Our most recent articles Dec 2: Usability task scenarios: The beating heart of a usability test Nov 4: Common traps in user needs research and how to avoid them Oct 7: Transitioning from academic research to UX research Sep 2: The minimalist field researcher: What's in my bag? Aug 5: The future of UX research is automated, and that's a problem. Our services Let us help you create great customer experiences.
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Your customers are counting on you for help as they rely on the information present in the instruction manual. Gather your peers around and start working on the document collaboratively. One person could be in charge of writing it while others review it, help organize the information, and create visual assets for the user manual. Outline the flow of the manual into different sections, or parts. Think about breaking it up into categories based on what users may search for.
Make sure that the instruction manual is in a smooth flow and covers all and in-depth processes from start to finish. Organizing the information is important to avoid confusion amongst the readers and make it an easy read for them. Now that you have everything outlined and organized with a clear structure in mind, the next step would be to start writing!
Always keep in mind that the primary purpose of user manuals is to help users complete tasks and solve problems. Thus, giving clear, to-the-point instructions help your customers get up to speed with your product or solve their issues with it quickly. Always using numbered lists for instructions and keep the content concise are some great practices for writing a good manual. Adding a table of contents to your instruction manual is a must. If your instruction manual is heavy on pages, the importance of having a table of contents increases exponentially.
The table of content provides navigation to the reader and helps them go to a particular topic quickly. Since customers are not looking to read your manual from start to finish and are just looking to solve a particular problem or learn about a topic, adding a table of contents helps them save time and effort. Using a document editor that automatically creates a table of contents around headings and subheadings is a great way to go about it. Instruction manuals are well, boring. They are filled with text and are not very engaging.
On top of that, visuals are processed 60, times faster in the brain than text. Making your online manual interactive with how-to videos and audio instructions can be a great way to enhance engagement and help customers or clients effectively. Keep on reading!
Therefore, always ask employees, especially those who are unfamiliar with the product or have not worked with you in creating the instruction manual, to give their honest feedback and suggestions on how to make it more effective.
This is why we would like to introduce you to Bit , the smartest document collaboration tool to create instruction manuals and other digital workplace documents for free! Bit is a new age cloud-based document collaboration tool that helps teams create, manage and track workplace documents including-.
Bit helps you make sure your instruction manuals are more than just plain boring text and images. Bit will automatically turn it into a live visual web link or embed content that lives on your workplace documents! Just copy-paste the URL of your content on a blank line of the document editor and hit enter. Bit then generates a live preview of your digital content within in your document.
They want it fast. So important that the quality of documents and the customer support are factors in many purchases. To refresh your memory we suggest:. Who is your audience? Who are you writing this for? An expert welder will understand the terminology about the new torch you are selling, but if you are selling that new torch to hardware stores, the average person off the streets may not have a clue what certain terminology mean. Here are some ways to make sure you are adapting to your target Audience:.
When choosing a writing style for a manual remember to use the same tone throughout the manual. Also remember what the mood of the audience will be at the time they are reading the manual. Here are some tips to choose a tone:.
Since technical manuals are read to inform the reader, the writing must be concise and precise. Your reader will quickly be looking for answers to a problem, to use the manual for safety or to start up procedures.
Guidelines are below:. The structure of your manual is just as important as the concepts that your manual expresses. Ideas and instructions must be easy to find, and easy to execute. When structuring your manual:. Readers need to see actions as well as read about them. Here are some tips for using photos in your manual:. Now that your manual is properly written it is time to distribute it to your clients.
The best ways to distribute manuals are:. From time to time your team may need to update the content of the manuals, this is fine and will show your clients that you are constantly improving your products and services. Empower your users to create great technical documentation by getting this manifesto posted in your office or workshop.
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