The Useless User Manual.
A quick lesson in making sure your customers can actually use the Manual.
As we continue to fit out our newly refurbished kitchen we are ordering, and taking delivery of, various culinary gadgets and fancy new storage items. One such item arrived this week, and with it came a handy pocket sized folded document that proclaimed itself to be a User Manual.
On first look it seemed a well thought out and presented document. Nicely structured into sections covering; Product Description, Precautions, Installation Instructions, and Notes. The same sections were translated into four additional languages. All looked good so far.
Then I read the 4 steps of the Installation Instructions:
Before installation, please check if the accessories are perfect.
Before installation, please confirm the installation position and height.
Please follow the steps of the instructions to assembly/install
Any questions, please contact us via email to handle.
Oh I had a question. How come the section titled Installation Instructions didn’t actually contain instructions on how to install the product? Where were the mysterious steps of instructions promised in line 3?
Not only weren’t they in their eponymous section, they were nowhere to be found in the User Manual.
But no problem, they said that if I had questions I could contact them via email. But guess what else isn’t in the User Manual? Yep, no email address.
Then there’s the nice marketing touch of having a lovely photo as the background for the manual. It just makes the content more difficult to read with the text running across a variety of shades and colors. Plain text on a plain background works for a reason, it is always easier to read.
I think this User Manual counts as a near-miss - nice idea, but poor execution.
When producing your customer facing product information think about the context they will be using it in:
Is all the information they need to accomplish their task included?
Does the content design help them navigate and understand the content?
Does it deliver on any promises you made, explicit or implied, in the content?
Alan
A Note of Appreciation
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Talking About Storytelling
Upcoming Webinars and Conferences
October 22nd - Content Wrangler Webinar - Customer Focused Storytelling for Product Information - Link TBC
October 24th - Content Matters Podcast - Developing Persona-based Content - The Good, Bad, and the Ugly!
October 27th-30th - Conference - LavaCon Content Strategy Conference - Portland OR.
Weekly Thought
Think of how your customers interact with your company and compare it to how you like interacting with other companies.
Do you provide your customers with the level of service that you expect other companies to offer you?
Customer Focused Storytelling Workshops
THE CONTENT POOL is pleased to announce that we are now offering our popular Customer Focused Storytelling Workshops
We are now taking bookings for the rest of 2024 and Q1/2025, and we wanted to make sure that as a newsletter reader you got an early opportunity to lock-in a date.
“Weaving storytelling into the mix makes the content more compelling, accessible, and effective!”
Learn how to deliver content-driven experiences that your customers relate to on our two-day Customer Outcome Focused Storytelling workshop.
In this workshop, we will:
Examine content from the customer’s perspective.
Plan how to adapt content delivery to meet the needs of a rapidly changing marketplace
Examine why every business transaction is a story
Outline the 10 Rules of Storytelling as applied to Customer Experience
Apply proven storytelling techniques to your content.
Identify potential opportunities for incorporating storytelling techniques
into the production of your customer-facing content assets.Facilitate an interactive feedback session on your existing customer-facing content.
If you would like more details, or you like to discuss reserving a date for yourself and your team to benefit from a Customer Focused Storytelling Workshop, just email us at ajp@4jsgroup.com to reserve your date.
In The Bookstore
If you enjoy the contents of this newsletter and would like more, we have three books always available from XML Press.
You can also check out The Content Pool website or follow us on FaceBook
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Till next time - have fun paddling in The Content Pool.
Alan J. Porter
The Content Pool™ is a division of the 4Js Group LLC