Hello All!
I have grown up as a very technological person; instructions have unfortunately been a part of my life for a very long time. I found this reading to be very interesting because it would have been great if some of the instruction writers who wrote the instructions of my past would have considered these simple directions they could have made much more sense. In my experience most instructions are for the most part impossible to actually utilize to get anything useful done. As discussed in chapter 19 the descriptions are extremely important and leaving out any detail can cause major issues. I have run into many sets of instructions that were carelessly translated from some other language and may even contain incorrect graphics for the product that I had. It is really annoying when a document is clearly a direct translation and a bad translation at that, this makes the instructions seem pointless from the beginning. As far as descriptions in these “horrible translations”, they are obviously not going to do a good job at describing the task or product at hand. A future note to these companies using translated directions would be to get a clue and write some decent instructions with detailed descriptions.
Tailoring these documents to the specific audience is also extremely important. As a technological person it is quite irritating to find instructions that only cater to the novice user. If I purchase any type of technology I expect it to come with varying instructions, including those for experienced users and those for novice users. If a product only includes advanced instructions and a novice user attempts to utilize them they will most definitely give up by the time they get to the third word they don’t completely understand. Writing for the reader in this instance is just as important as our previous project when we were writing for our prospective employer, these instructions need to impress the user and make them feel invited and comfortable.
Thanks!
JFlitt 
Hardware Software Instructions
Yeah I have went through a lot of printers in my computer days and everyone has extremely different directions. Just like you said, the graphics are the most inviting part of the instructions manual and sometimes reading the manual is not needed. The best graphics that I have seen with printers or other hardware is Hewlett Packard's instruction manuals. The graphics are great and the installation process is quite idiot proof. One of the worst things that I have came across is the step, Now plug the printer into the computer. If the printer was previously plugged in the steps would be done out of sequence and sometimes have to start over. The worst feeling in reading a instruction manual is having to start over.
Technological Society
Our generation as a whole is very technological if you think about it. I’m not 100% sure if it was this way when our parents were our age, but it seems that unless you are buying a top of the line piece of furniture, you’re going to have to put something together. Most of us have put together a bookcase or chair we bought for what was probably considered a discount price. While I guess I am not expecting a ‘u-assemble’ bookcase made of oak wood, I am expecting to be able to follow simple instructions to put said bookcase together. However, it seems that most of the time, instructions that come with these items are lacking in quality too.
Pictures = Awesome
I love pictures with my instructions! They really help get the point across especially if I am confused about the poorly written instructions. There have been some technical instructions that did not help me at all because I needed a picture or two to confirm that I am doing the procedure correctly. One of the most frustrating things I have come across in some of my computer classes is following the poorly written instructions I find online and have them not work. A troubleshooting section is also extremely helpful when writing instructions. Without them a user could have hardware compatibility issues with the product that would not affect everyone.
I absolutely agree that
I absolutely agree that pictures come in handy and can enhance instructions, but they can just as easily hinder them. Some of the instructions I have come across with the wrong pictures in regards to the item they are trying to instruct about are just plain confusing. You begin asking yourself if this instruction book even has a clue as to what the heck it is talking about. It is very disheartening to find the incorrect picture is placed on the instruction booklet for the electronic device you just purchased, which may lead to a return. You’d think that these companies would just do a bit extra to ensure their instructions aren’t total crap!
www.JFlitt.com
Yes pictures
YES! Pictures help a bunch in most situations. Whether it be pictures of how to put something together like a desk or screen shots. Its so much easier to be sure of something if you can see it. I hate when you have to fill out something long in a techincal setup and there is no sort of picture. It makes it harder to figure out where you are supposed to enter your settings. When there is even just one picture it helps you know that you're on the right track.
-Chris
Varying levels of difficulty
I definitely agree with what you said about including instructions for both expert and novice users. The manual for a camera I got was written so that the tasks were more complicated as you went through the manual. First page: putting batteries in the camera, second page: turning the camera on, and so forth. It was quite helpful because I could just flip through the manual until I found something that I didn't know how to do and then start reading from that point. I can't think of any more frustrating than looking through a manual trying to find something only to find that the manual contains everything I already know how to do or am capable of figuring out on my own.
Andy
The wrong diagrams
Jason, I too have run into the wrong diagram occasionally. I can't stress how frustrating this is! It usually appears that the incorrect diagram was from a previous revision of the product and now with the newer version they were too lazy to simply upgrade the technical document. This really says something negative about the company and is a great way to produce unhappy customers. Also, I hate those horrible translations that seem to sneak their way in there. It sometimes renders the documents useless and vague. The translations tend to be non descriptive and confusing. On another note, I don’t necessarily think it’s feasible to cater to every different user with a different section for the novice user, expert and so on. I think it’s probably better to structure your document so that the novice can easily find what he needs, while at the same time if there’s too much detailed information the expert can simply skip over it and still get what he wants.
Translations
I know exactly what you are saying about poor translations. It is bad enough trying to decipher poorly written instructions. But when these instructions started out being poorly written in another language, they are exponentially worse after translation. The wording is completely out of order, if it makes any sense at all, only adding to the frustration and anger that you will undoubtedly develop while trying to translate the translations. Something else that is more of a pet peeve of mine is when every other word is a typo. Usually you can still understand what is attempting to be written, but if you are going to take the time to write instructions and put them with your product, why not take an extra five to ten minutes to proofread it before sending it out? Are these people on that tight of a schedule that instructions are so hastily written that they can't be proofread? It just doesn't make sense that these companies would even give instructions if they knew that they were that bad.
Instruction Translation
When you mentioned translated instructions, it reminded me of the operators when you call tech support and get redirected to india. You call tech support hoping to get some help on fixing your problem and all of a sudden you have another problem now: you can't understand what the person on the other side is saying. They are speaking with a very strong accent and make many gramatical mistakes. Companies that outsourc their tech support really aggrevate their customers.