How to design manual

Organize the content in a logical and coherent manner. Make an outline of the Manual. Then, write the details for each topic in the manual. Use basic color such as black or blue since there are people who cannot distinguish colors. Make it look professional and business- like.

After organizing the data, put it on writing. List the information needed in the Manual. Put all details as necessary. Make it logical, simple and easy-to-read. Let the staff read and check out the manual. The first step in creating an effective manual is to have a clear objective in mind. Make sure you know exactly what your instruction manual needs to cover in order to avoid information overload or confusion. In order to create an effective user manual, you need to have a good idea of what type of content you want to include in it.

Compile all the information, knowledge, process, checklists, etc. Make sure you are thorough with every point and have everything you need to write the instructions. Never, ever, rely on your memory! Even skipping a small step may lead to confusion amongst the readers. For example, forgetting to tell the reader about an important switch in a new piece of equipment can not only be misleading but can also be dangerous.

When writing a manual, you need to think like a user. Assume that your readers have absolutely zero knowledge of the subject matter and write away! You are more likely to write an effective manual if you have a good understanding of who your customers are and what their major use cases are. If you have the opportunity to watch a user test your product, it can help you in determining how customers are interacting with the product and where they get stuck and have problems.

Writing these documents is not an easy task. Your customers are counting on you for help as they rely on the information present in the instruction manual.

Gather your peers around and start working on the document collaboratively. One person could be in charge of writing it while others review it, help organize the information, and create visual assets for the user manual.

Outline the flow of the manual into different sections, or parts. Think about breaking it up into categories based on what users may search for. Make sure that the instruction manual is in a smooth flow and covers all and in-depth processes from start to finish. Organizing the information is important to avoid confusion amongst the readers and make it an easy read for them.

Now that you have everything outlined and organized with a clear structure in mind, the next step would be to start writing! Always keep in mind that the primary purpose of user manuals is to help users complete tasks and solve problems. While drafting a user manual with help of the User Manual Template, it can be handy to have some good examples.

Through the following links you can download a user manual sample for documentation:. Ok, so now Philip has some basic knowledge about user manuals. When you want to write a manual that helps your user to solve problems, you first need to define who your user is. This can be done by creating a user profile, also named a persona.

With a persona, you make some reasonable assumptions about the characteristics of your user. This is not only useful for creating your user instructions, but it is an essential element at the start of the development of any product! As an educated industrial design engineer, this is how we started all our design assignments. You can use the template yourself to determine who your user is. Action: Use the template to describe your user s. I am a HUGE fan of visualizing things.

So if you want to take defining your user one step further, I would suggest you visualise your user in the form of a persona. When creating a persona you are giving your user a name, age et cetera, so it becomes a real person that represents your user.

Typical problems might include: installing the product, using the product, using the product safely, maintaining the product and disposing of the product. I asked Philip to identify the problems and solutions that his user might encounter during the product lifecycle. In order to do so, I created another template for Philip. Our user manual templates are compliant with this standard. Action: Use this template and the instructions on the first tab to identify the problems your user might have during the lifecycle of your product and present their solutions.

Philip has now identified the problems a user might have with his product during its lifecycle and he has now thought of the solution to solve the problem. In other words: Philip has defined the topics for his user manual. Each topic can only be about one specific subject, has an identifiable purpose, and must be able to stand alone. A user wants to solve one problem at a time. A topic will become a section in the user manual.

It can be a chapter or a sub- paragraph. As soon as a user is looking for an answer to his problem, he will use the table of contents to find out how to navigate to that answer. I asked Philip to structure the topics and define their place in the user manual, by assigning a certain topic to a specific chapter or sub- paragraph.

You have now created the Table of Contents ToC. The ToC is the outline of your user manual. Each topic in the user manual gets its own heading. The headings are the sub- titles that precede the actual text. They appear in the ToC, so the user can navigate to the needed information. Because the ToC entries play such an important role in helping your user find their way, and to help them skip what is NOT important, they need a bit more attention.

Basically, you should try and work with three levels of headings: first-, second- and third-level headings. The first-level heading describes what the entire chapter or section is about e. A third-level heading uses noun-phrases e. Packaging contents and Tools to be used. Meaningful Headings tab.

Dependent on the market where your product is placed in or put into service, and dependent on the product group your product belongs to, specific legislation applies to your product. These requirements also include requirements on the content of your user manual and safety instructions. In order to sell your product in a specific market, you should make sure that your user manual complies with these requirements.

These two articles below will tell you how you can find out exactly which legislation applies to your product for the European and U. Pro tip: when there is a Declaration of Conformity available already, you can find the applicable directives in there. Philip didn't need to conduct these steps, as the template he used already contained the legal content as required by the relevant directives.

For his product, it means that the following information is required for the user manual for his product:. This standard has been harmonised in the EU. Compliance with harmonised standards provides a presumption of conformity with the corresponding legislation!

I have also created an IEC checklist that can be used to double check that your user manual complies with this standard. In order to create an internationally compliant user manual, you should always make sure your manual meets the EU, US and requirements. I asked him to adjust the table of contents of the template according to his own table of contents. Without removing and mandatory elements of course Do you remember from step 4 that I asked to start the numbering of the sections with chapter 4?

Once you download the user manual template doc yourself, you will see that a few standard chapters have been added, as well as some appendices. The purpose of your product, or better: the intended use, is the heart of a user manual and forms the basis of ensuring the safe and healthy use of the product. The way the intended use is described also determines your liability and affects the further contents of the user manual. The most legislation requires you to include a description of the intended use in the user instructions.

The international standard for user instructions, the IEC , provides the following definition for the intended use:. An exhaustive range of functions or foreseen applications defined and designed by the supplier of the product. By describing the intended use you determine the safe envelope of the product. And once you have determined the intended use, you can focus on providing only those safety and user instructions for how to use the product within the given envelope.

Additionally, to the intended use, many more standards, directives and regulations also require you to include a description of the reasonably foreseeable misuse. For example, the reasonably foreseeable misuse of an aggressive detergent could be the use of it in a food processing environment. Paying too little attention to describing the reasonably foreseeable misuse will affect a company's liability. If the defectiveness of a product needs to be determined, all circumstances will be taken into account.

That includes the reasonably foreseeable use of the product. The description of the intended use determines which instructions are given in the rest of the manual.

For example, if a cooling system is only used for cooling certain medications, then only these procedures need to be described. When it could reasonably be foreseen that the cooling system may be used as a system to cool organs, this should be described in the instructions. Be sure to enumerate the cleaning supplies needed. Inform the reader of how often they should clean.

Then, just as you would in any other section of the user manual, include numbered step-by-step instructions as to how cleaning should proceed. If cleaning requires some disassembly of the product, or removal of a certain part or parts, be sure to include details on how to disassemble.

Include a warning about the results of failing to clean the device will be. Tell the user how to perform basic maintenance.

If the product or device can be serviced by the user to correct performance issues, include numbered directions as to how the user can do so. For instance, if the batteries need to be changed after every hours of use, include directions on how to check whether the batteries need to be changed, how to remove the dead batteries, and how to insert the new batteries.

If there are some maintenance tasks that can only be performed by a certified technician, divide the maintenance portion of the manual into two sections. Discuss storage options. The user manual should, if necessary, explain how to store the product or device properly.

You should also include information about why storage is necessary, and what the results of improper storage are. Improper storage could shorten the life of your product due to the buildup of moisture. Doing so may lead to combustion. Include troubleshooting information. You might organize this section as a list of common problems and their solutions. Group similar problems together under a logical heading. This way, users can find specific problems quickly.

Part 4. Read other user manuals. Before writing a manual for your own product, look at other effective user manuals. Pay attention to the structure, word choice, and sentence style. Major brands like Apple, Google, and Microsoft produce strong, effective user manuals that can help you produce a more thoughtfully written user manual.

Read the manuals for similar products that you are selling. For example, if you're selling baby products, read baby manuals, not tech. Select your standards. Standardizing spelling, word choice, and phrasing will make the user manual more user-friendly. The Chicago Manual of Style and the Microsoft Manual of Style might also be useful style guides when writing your user manual; consult both to see if one will work for your manual.

Use active voice. It is easier to understand than its alternative, passive voice, in which the subject is undefined. Examine these two sentences, the first active and the other passive, for examples of each: You should open the package slowly and carefully.

The package should be opened slowly and carefully. Write numbered instructions. Numerically ordered instructions will help the reader stay more focused on the process of using, connecting, or building the product in question. Instead of writing a long, rambling paragraph, or a series of un-numbered paragraphs, write your user manual with simple, explicit steps, each numbered clearly.

Start each step with an imperative. An imperative is an action-oriented verb. By starting each step with a verb, you will clue the reader in to the action required to complete the step. The screen will blink and turn blue. Use simple words and vocabulary in order to explain how the yo-yo works.

In general, try to avoid jargon and technical language. To be effective to the broadest array of users, try to write at a sixth to seventh grade reading level. Ensure your translations are accurate if you are shipping a product overseas. Hire a translator to translate your user manual into the native language of the country that you are shipping your product to.

Alternatively, use an online translating app, but ask a native speaker read over and edit the translation for errors. If there are multiple language groups represented in your audience, include translations of the user manual in each relevant language. The translator should be familiar with the product, as there may be different words for specific terms in the target language that not are word-for-word translations.

Keep your writing brief. Instead of a few long paragraphs, use many short paragraphs. Look for logical breaks in each section and put useful information into one or two-sentence chunks.