Custom Visual Work Instructions and Graphic Procedures

Tips and Insights

Over our 28 years of explaining, we've accumulated a wealth of valuable information that doesn't fit neatly under our web site tabs. This body of knowledge includes some tools we have developed, approaches that have worked well, other approaches that failed, and a large amount of miscellany that could be called "accumulated wisdom" or perhaps more accurately "battle scars"

We organized this section as topic threads that invite further insights and comments. We welcome your additions.

We also welcome questions and suggestions for new topics.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

An Instruction Fiasco

I visited my ten-year-old niece this past weekend and she, her father and I decided to play a new card game she received as a gift. I began reading the instructions out loud, then fell silent and read them to myself. I'm a visual learner, and I realized I had to concentrate to understand.

With typical adolescent patience, my niece complained (and rightly so), "I've been waiting 15 minutes and you're still reading the instructions."

I'll admit the card game was sophisticated-a bit like gin rummy-but still . . . It's advertised as a game for players 8 and up. If any business should have visual instructions figured out, it should be companies manufacturing products for children. Even if they expect the adults to explain the game to children, companies should remember that having an antsy child is distracting and fuel for tension. We adults don't want to have to work at reading in those situations. We want it easy and quick. Period.

Labels: plain language, visual work instructions