What makes a good instruction?

Over the last few weeks I have been doing a bit of work on product instructions, and I can tell you it can be a bit of a minefield. I have worked on instructions for different products, and had different design briefs for the instructions too.

Conversations can go something like this:

1-"We need a new instruction - people keep calling to say that it doesn't have enough images, and too many words."

2-"OK, let's go for a nice big picture showing how everything goes together, we'll get rid of the text so people aren't confused by it."

So an instruction is made with a big picture and very little text, and then people call to complain that there isn't enough text!

There are examples of really bad instructions, like this for a frying pan lid, and sometimes the meaning isn't quite right, like this bin, but quite often there is a case of different people take in information in different ways.

Here at valuetvbrackets we are trying to help with our instruction videos. Here's one for our TV stand, it's not too tricky but this makes it really clear.

The TV brackets are harder, but the videos, like this one for the PL6000 37-50 TVs definitely make things a bit easier.

Are the any examples of good or bad instructions that you've come across? What makes a good instruction in your opinion? Let me know.

Royal Mail Postal Strike

Just a quick note to say that the proposed Royal Mail postal strike won't have any effect on deliveries from us at valuetvbrackets as we send out our deliveries with Fedex UK. This allows us to deliver on the next working day, and get confirmed, signed for, delivery with on-line tracking for our customers.

The importance of cable management

Having got a new DVD player at the weekend after the old one conked out (it would only play Desperate Housewives - not ideal when hoping for something a bit more manly!) I had to hook it up to the TV.

This involved:

Removing the old DVD player

First find which plug it is attached to, done by trial and error

Unplug and spend next 10 minutes untangling the wire from the others

Get frustrated that the hole on the back of the TV cabinet is not big enough to get a plug through!!

Eventually squeeze the plug through the hole

Try and shove the new DVD player's plug back through the small hole

Get the thing plugged in - to find that my lovely partner wants to watch Desperate Housewives!

There is a point to my little rant - that being that it is quite nice to find something that has been designed to make using it easier rather than harder. Take the ipod for example, I'm no genius but can make music come out of mine and I have never looked at an instruction manual as it's designed with its use in mind.

The same goes for the cable management on the TV stands that we stock - it guides the wires out of sight and can keep them neat and tidy so that you don't end up tearing your hair out when you come to get yourself a new DVD player.

Here's a picture of how it can be done if you want to avoid a lot of messing around setting up your new TV on a TV stand.