Increasingly, we expect software and hardware to be self explanatory. If an application or device requires a user manual, it illicits a sense that it was poorly designed. As instruction manuals disappear, so does our ability to understand and fix technology ourselves. The Guardian’s Mark Miodownik laments the demise of user manuals:
“We now live in a world in which curiosity and care are discouraged, and in which the instruction manual is slowly but inevitably becoming extinct.”
The solution, proposes Mr. Miodownik, is to “establish public workshops so everyone has the chance to investigate, repair and more deeply appreciate their mobile phone or any other of the growing family of machines in our lives.” (RN)
Is the instruction manual heading for extinction? | The Guardian | Mark Miodownik | 19 August 2009
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I’m not convinced about user manuals disappearing. Sure, the paper version is increasingly being replaced by a quick start guide that then points us in the direction of a CD, PDF or website, but because they have become so large, expensive and little-used.
I don’t think it’s about bad impressions, simply that we now expect a plethora of pop-up help boxes, hover-over question marks and help menus – and it’s a step in the right direction in my opinion.
From a training point of view – less dead tree, and more like performance support tools…