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.
By doing so, you, as the manufacturer, will limit your liability and you can focus on only describing how to use the system to cool medicines. Figure 1. Reasonably foreseeable misuse? Even though the intended use has now been clearly defined, this does not mean that using a product is completely without any risks. To identify the hazards that come with the use of a product, you can conduct a risk analysis.
A risk analysis can also be mandatory for certain product groups, such as low-voltage equipment, toys, machinery and equipment for use in explosive atmospheres. Standards, like the ISO , have been developed on how to conduct a risk analysis.
According to this method, there is the following hierarchy of risk-reducing measures:. This means that the user guide should warn of any residual risks related to the use of the product.
This is done with safety warnings. A good safety warning describes the nature of a hazardous situation, the consequences of not avoiding a hazardous situation and the method s for avoiding it. Rotating parts. Risk of serious injuries. Keep hands clear. Then you want to warn the user where a hazardous situation might be encountered. Do this. Do that. This is embedded safety messages. General text general text general text. In the EU, depending on the kind of product, it might be allowed to provide only the safety information in printed form and the rest of the information online.
Action: conduct a risk analysis and craft your safety messages using this template. Now I asked Philip to create all other content, such as the procedures, technical specs and legal information. Again, for most product groups there are paid templates available which might make the work easier. These templates contain all legal texts, mandatory disposal information, copyright statements and comply with the IEC standard on user instructions. There was a Syntax highlighter that was used, that allowed to display the source code in different colors as well as fonts.
Towards the left there were different topics that were listed by it. If you are planning to build a website related to API or where the source code is give much importance than definitely you should visit the documentation that is offered by stripe.
The way the documentation for it was represented was commendable. There were different topics or the categories that were listed towards the left which is indeed eye catching for the visitors. MailChimp is an email service provider that allows you to create, send as well as manage email newsletters.
The documentation that is provided by them is very eye catching. It allows to add the links for the documentation along with Syntax Highlighter. Towards the left there are different sections that are displayed for the guide and there is different URL for each of the section. The documentation provided by MailChimp is displayed in very appealing way also all the points and instructions are mentioned very clearly.
It will help you for the optimization of the site and also provides with the complete solution for SEO. Yoast provides with clean documentation, below each document there is a contact us form that allows to contact the support team in case of any of the queries. It also provides with a proper pagination along with all the categories that is listed towards the left. One can easily locate the category through the Search option present towards the top. It will also provides with the information when the document was updated lastly.
After going through the documentation that is offered by Microsoft, it is very appealing for the visitors. It includes videos and images along with the documents that allows the visitors to have a better understanding. There are different sections for each of the category and there is an in-depth documentation that is provided by it. The thing that makes the documentation of Microsoft to be very appealing is the images and screenshots used by it.
As images are always worth a thousand words. The way in which the documentation of Apple is present is really amazing. There are different points as well as instructions that are covered in the guide that is offered by them. Towards the bottom it provides with the feedback option where the visitors can share their views regarding a particular document. Also the users can add the suggestion in order to improve the particular document.
There are also screenshots that are included to have a better understanding of the document that is provided. 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.
Thus, giving clear, to-the-point instructions help your customers get up to speed with your product or solve their issues with it quickly. Always using numbered lists for instructions and keeping the content concise are some great practices for writing a good manual.
Adding a table of contents to your instruction manual is a must. If your instruction manual is heavy on pages, the importance of having a table of contents increases exponentially. The template is completely free to use. It comes with multiple sections for detailing your brand style guides. And you can edit it using Adobe Illustrator.
Another free brand manual template featuring a clean and minimal design. This template includes several unique page layouts you can easily customize to create your own brand manuals. It comes in InDesign file format. This one is a different kind of a brand manual template. If you want to create a brand manual to showcase in your office or share it as a leaflet, this is perfect for you. The template has multiple page designs that you can download from here. You can edit them using either InDesign or Affinity software.
A very creative and modern brand manual template that features a stylish design. This one is most suitable for creating brand manuals for design and marketing agencies. The template itself comes with 48 unique pages in A4 and US Letter size. You can customize it using InDesign CS4 or higher. The landscape format of brochures are easier to browse and gives a magazine-like feel to your documents. This template is also designed with a landscape layout.
It comes with 28 page designs for crafting a professional brand manual. The template includes text styles, paragraph styles, and editable colors too. Corporate brand manuals need to be designed without too much style but with elegance.
This brand manual template comes with the perfect design for creating such brochures. It includes 20 unique page layouts in A4 and US Letter size.
Most modern brands these days use minimalist styles. This template is made just for those brands. It also features a very clean and professional design. Every page uses beautiful styling but without using lots of colors and shapes. The template is easily customizable. And it comes in A4 and US Letter size. Featuring a creative and modern design, this brand manual template is most suitable for designing brochures for modern brands, startups, and agencies.
The template includes 30 unique page layouts in A4 size. You can also change its text styles and colors however you like. This free template is designed for creating high-quality brand style guides. It includes several stylish pages you can use to showcase and document your brand style elements.
0コメント