The Mightier Pen

Product Manuals & User Guides

Writing product manuals is all too often a task given to the brilliantly clever people who designed and created the product in the first place, but unfortunately this is often a big mistake. There are two good reasons why this is the case.

The first reason why product manuals should not be written by those who created or designed the product is simply because they are usually too close to the product, with an assumed understanding and knowledge that can result in a manual leaping from one concept to another, missing out small but incredibly significant steps, and taking considerable time to focus on fascinating but relatively trivial technical points.

The second good reason why product manuals should not be written by the manufacturer is because all too often these are not native English speakers. We have all seen examples of instructions written in English by a non-English speaker, with hilarious, disastrous or simply baffling instructions for the consumer to try to follow.

A professional, native English speaking writer has two advantages. Clearly there is the advantage as far as language and communication is concerned. The second is that, in order for the writer to write a product manual, he or she must first learn all about, and fully understand, the product itself.

An information booklet, user guide or manual is often written more along the lines of a sales brochure - listing all of the features available. The order of these is often seen as largely irrelevant, with either an alphabetical arrangement, or left-to-right methodology being adopted.

In order to produce a successful, and useful, user guide to a product, it is important to approach the project from the point of view of at least two customers: those who have no prior knowledge, understanding or assumed background, and those who do have some understanding and are looking to move on to the next step.

It is for the first type of customer or user that the greatest care must be taken to ensure that all information is presented in a logical, helpful sequence, clearly laid out in easy to follow stages, without being overwhelming.

Often people just need to get started quickly, and nothing can be more frustrating for a user than having to sit and read half a book before even finding out how to turn the thing on. Most customers abandon the user guide fairly early on, preferring to have a go instead.

This is as a direct result of the common failings inherent in so many product manuals. One of the best techniques in many cases is what I refer to as the 'spiral product manual'. This doesn't refer to the method used for printing and binding, but to the sequence and depth that the information is covered.

The 'spiral' method begins by covering as many of the basic, essential functions and requirements as possible, in a fairly superficial way. This allows people to get an overall feel and hands-on experience of the product, alleviating the temptation to chuck the book away and experiment.

Once this brief circuit has been completed, another lap is covered which goes into more practical detail. The reader should by now have a rudimentary understanding of the product, and is more likely to read at least some of this section. For the enthusiasts, a third lap can be included which covers any advanced information, settings, adjustments or technical information.

Of course, this is just one way in which a product manual can be written, and each project will have its own individual needs and challenges. For more information, or to discuss your product manual or user guide requirements, please use the contact form at the top of this page.

User Guides

How many times have you read a user guide? Now read the question again - it didn't ask how many times you have seen a user guide, or glanced at one, but how many times you have actually read one, properly.

The answer is likely to be very few, because, like most people, you'll be more anxious to start using the shiny new expensive gadget you have just bought, or begin clicking the buttons in that fantastic new software bundle you purchased. Sitting and reading a user guide or manual can feel a little like going back to school to learn all the theory.

This isn't helped by the fact that so many user guides or manuals are written by the technical boffins who understand everything from particle physics to the nanotechnology, and write the guides with the assumption in mind that you have at least the same level of understanding. Either this, or they're written by someone whose first language isn't English, and neither is their second or third, but they're a dab hand at using Google's translation tool.

This is usually one of the rare times I do actually read a user guide - when they've been translated by a computer, or by someone with only a hazy awareness of what English is supposed to look like. I read a document recently for a mobile phone charger which advised me to be cautious if it reached temperatures in excess of 4647°C. That's unlikely, as I would imagine that most of my street would be burnt to a cinder long before it reached the temperatures close to the surface of the sun.

The problem with most user guides is that they simply aren't. I mean, they're not written for the user, and they don't exactly guide the reader either. They seem written for knowledgeable experts and techno-boffins, not so much as a guide as a technical manual. Taking an advanced technical manual and printing the words 'User Guide' in large friendly letters on the front does not a user guide make...

The best user guides are written by those who not only have an excellent grasp of the English language - an English writer being the perfect choice - but also by someone with almost no familiarity or foundation knowledge of the product at all. In this way they can ask all of the right questions, and help provide a natural route into using the product that combines the inevitable curiosity with which any consumer is likely to approach the product, with the basic and essential knowledge required to actually get started safely.

If your business or organization provides user guides, think about how these are planned out and developed, and who is responsible for writing them, checking them and trying them out. If technical people responsible for the design or manufacture of the items are the ones responsible, this may well prove to be a complete waste of time.

Nobody wants to spend time writing a book that no one will ever read. Why waste hours writing a user guide that no one is going to read, still less, actually understand? The usefulness and readability of your user manuals is often the one chance to get your written word into the hands of your customers. You have a chance to speak directly with your customer, within their own home. What you say, and how you say it, will make a great impression, and could either win you the loyalty of a customer for the future, or lose that loyalty forever.

For more information on writing services available for user guides or product manuals, or to discuss any other projects you may have, please use the contact link at the top of the page.

Product Descriptions

Product descriptions are not shopping lists. This might appear to be a fairly obvious statement to many, but a remarkable number of product descriptions, for anything from mobile phones to software, are written as though simply bombarding the customer with a huge list of features will result in them meekly giving in to the insurmountable pressure of evidence.

To write a good product description it is important to approach the project from the point of view of your prospective customer. Too often these documents are written from the point of view of the seller or manufacturer. Some product descriptions almost read like a CV, or an end of term grade report to which you are invited to respond by congratulating them on their remarkable achievements.

Most customers are interested in only the barest details and basic advantages or features to begin with. Hurling a stack of statistics, options, features or functions at a customer is only going to result in burying the salient points which might otherwise have caught someone's attention.

In many cases, a brief description of even just one of the product's main features is not always going to be successful. Customers tend to be very self centred. For this reason it is important to make each customer who reads your product description feel that this product has been designed with them in mind, and that they will benefit from this product in a personal, individual way.

Think about how your product will make life easier, cheaper, safer or more reliable. Approach your product description from this angle and you are more likely to attract the attention of the reader.

Consider the following two versions of the same product description for an energy saving light bulb:

1. "Our new energy saving light bulbs have a life span which is up to ten times that of a standard filament bulb."
2. "With our new energy saving light bulbs, you can save the cost of 90% of replacement bulbs in the future."

The first version is clearly seller-centred, whereas the second version puts the customer first, and points out a distinct advantage.

Which version do you think is likely to appeal more?

This can still be improved considerably, however. One way in which this can be achieved is by starting the product description by asking a question The previous paragraph contained a question, and almost certainly you answered it in your mind, even without thinking. That is because we all feel a psychological need to respond to a question.

By asking a question, you involve your customer, whether they mean to be involved or not. Once you have involved them, you have turned a sale pitch into a dialogue - and more than this - it is a dialogue that focuses on the customer, rather than the product.

Our example sales pitch could be developed this way perhaps:

3. "Would you like to be able to change light bulbs less frequently? With these new energy saving bulbs you can wait ten times as long before having to change the next one."

It's improving, isn't it? There - another question. I bet you answered it. Did you?

Got you again.

Of course, any little trick like this can be overdone - the art of product descriptions, sales pitches and promotional web pages is to make sure that you use a few subtle tricks to catch the customer's attention, and get them reading. Then the approach has to adapt to the fact that the customer is now in your confidence. If you shout at someone in the street to get their attention, once you have it, you don't need to keep shouting