The secret is summed up by answering these two questions:
- Can readers find what they're looking for fast and logically?
- Will the book be easy to handle and hold up to daily wear and tear?
Users want easy access, physical convenience, and usability.
Seven (7) design elements - collectively referred to as front matter and back matter.
- Table of contents - critical first impression to your readers and a negative one will discourage readers from reading it at all. Do the table of contents last, not first.
- List of illustrations - Used for tables, photographs, graphics, etc. and appears right after the table of contents.
- List of forms - Just like list of instructions and list of illustrations, but is just for forms. Most readers dislike forms. Having them in a list discourages the excuse, "I couldn't find it."
- Introduction - Sets the stage for what's in the manual, such as purpose and scope. Helpful for all manuals, but keep it brief.
- Glossary - List of special words, acronyms, abbreviations, jargon and terminology a reader needs to know. Kept at front or back of book. Keep it brief
- Appendix - Info that supplements the text. Place it at end of section or at end of policy/procedure to which it applies. Traditionally, goes at end of book but readers hate to flip pages and may be overlooked altogether, so carefully consider placement.
- Index - Most valuable "speed tool" of an alphabetical list of items in the manual. Many types of indexes. No matter what type, use terminology readers use. Indexes are back matter, but placement in manual can vary.
Six (6) Production Elements:
Main items to consider:
- How readers will use the manual
- Under what conditions will they use it
- How frequently they will use it
- Size - standard dimensions are 8 1/2 x 11. Don't be bound by that but consider ramifications of larger or smaller manuals. Smaller manuals may get lost in the shelves with other books.
- Paper - Heavy use of manuals might call for heavier pound paper, like 24-32. Location of use might call for laminated or plastic coated paper. Think of how and where they are used and plan accordingly.
- Color - White is good, but don't be afraid to experiment, like colored paper for important pages, or for the table of contents or index. Don't forget that binder - if all the binders are black, pick red.
- Binders - 3-ring are best if you are going to change the manual a lot. Spiral bound is good if you don't. Whatever you use, being able to open the manual flat is good. And, buy as good as budget allows. Cheap ones break. If you get them too big and it takes two hands to pull it from the shelf, it is not as likely to be used as one you can grab with one hand.
- Cover - Popular are the binders with a clear, plastic envelope on the front. Don't forget an insert for the spine.
- Dividers - One of the main 'speed tools' for accessing a manual. Make sure those are quality ones as well.
Distribution Issues - Develop a distribution list and get a signed receipt of acknowledgement from the person receiving the manual.
The psychology of the user:
- Big is daunting. Any document that needs to be carried with two hands is a candidate for the least-used.
- Most users reach for a handbook when they need an answer immediately (and easily).
- A good first impression (in the table of contents) will entice your users to read further.
- Most readers dislike forms and will find any excuse NOT to use them.
- People hate to flip pages. Placement is critical.
- A good manual has the good news first, bad news second, neutral news last.
- Users find illustrations convenient.
- Users like lists or tables of illustrations.
- Users like lists of forms; If you have a lot, you could even put them in a separate manual.
- Forms - they don't like using them, and don't like filling them out. Make them easy to find.
- Readers love a good index.
9 comments:
To me, there is nothing worse than dealing with a poorly written textbook/manual. It is important to be able to easily understand something that is teaching you a subject for the first time. Front and back matter is also important, and something I didn't look at until Editing last semester. It is interesting to me how we use books all the time, but don't really page attention to layout and placement. After I began working on text like material, I really understood why things are generally the way they are for hand books and manuals, good ones at least. Production is also a huge consideration in terms of where a person can save money by utilizing the most space in the book. I also love dividers and the "speed tools" that were talked about. Being able to use manuals as a reference when a subject is needed is crucial.
WOW! This chapter talks about the 'hard copy' manual and at my job, the emphasis is on eliminating these manuals! We no longer have any type of manual at our work areas and must rely on the intra-clinic web pages for all the answers. Kathy wrote about the forms being included in the table of contents. That's another asset of an online manual: we can complete all the forms on the computer, saving a lot of time and the accuracy is better. I realize there are times when a physical manual is necessary, such as working with a machine out in the shop. That said, I agree with Lindsay that poorly written manuals are usually ignored. I also like any 'speed tools' to help me find what I need asap. I can't say I take time to read the table of contents in manuals, except in desperation if nothing else works to find what I'm looking for. Same with the appendix area of a manual. After reading this chapter, I better understand the importance of a table of contents and it makes perfect sense to put this together at the end of the project, not at the beginning.
The part that I really liked about this chapter was about the index. I use indices all the time, mostly online. They are such a valuable tool. I'm with Lindsey in that I basically took the table of contents and the index for granted until I really had to study them and how they are put together. Now I am amazed at the differences I see between a well-thought-out index versus one that wasn't done so well.
This chapter would be very helpful to me if we were to work on a another policies and procedures project. I liked how it described in detail all the different material in the front and back matter. For instance, I never knew that there were so many different index types. It would be kind of fun to include one if were to do another project that required one. Most of the manuals that I have seen don't include any sort of index, although many were fairly small and included one would be kind of silly. I worked at Sea World for a summer in San Diego a while back and remember there was a reference manual for all the different locations of the items in the warehouse that was used quite heavily by me and other employees. The divider tabs came in quite handy, easily saving thousands of dollars in labor every year.
This chapter describes the importance of using a Table of Contents. Very few of the hard copy manuals we use at my work have a TOC, the exceptions are the Quallity System manual (ISO), employee handbook and SOP books. They are a valuable asset that enables the employee to quickly find the section they are looking for. We are slowly moving to creating online forms that can be populated and routed for approval electronically. What a time saver!
I think it's intersting to think that we all were exposed to textbooks at a young age. The scary thing that I'm now learning is that not all textbooks were created equally. In school, we did not have a choice what textbook we learned from and therefore had to trust the right one was picked for us. Becoming older allows us to be more subjective and therefore look at many aspects such as layout, page design and content. Textbooks are also well constructed in my opinion when there are options such as a speed tab or quick reference. Publication of textbooks or information online often allows us this convenience. I am all in favor of eliminating the dense, unnecessary material found in a lot of manuals and textbooks and this chapter, if nothing else allows to become smart readers.
The section on "psychology of the user" was informative to me. I have never thought about the little things that may affect how often people use a manual at work. It makes sense, for our manual is two or three inches thick and heavy (you need to hands to lift it). It is not used very often. The emphasis on placement of each of the elements of the manual (front and back matter) was another topic I have never though about either. I thought that the traditional placement of indexes and appendixes was a rule that everyone followed, but I learned that if the situation calls for a different location, the writers need to be aware of this so readers can use the manual efficiently.
This chapter made me think about manuals, and how much thought a tech writer is supposed to put into them. So many things are important when thinking of the final output. Users expect certain things, and have high standards. On the (sometimes) rare occasion that someone reads your manual, they will catch any mistake they come across. Binding issues are big too. While at my workplace, we a trying to eliminate hard copy- we can't eliminate it altogether because customers still insist on having hardcopies. Maybe in five years, this chapter will no longer apply.
Those "divider tabs", the ones that let you skip to a section in the book instantly? In my disc case I tried making them out of masking tape. It technically worked, but I wouldn't recommend it. Especially with the failure rate of trying to line everything up just so.
I've hardly ever purchased a reference material that wasn't explicitly recommended for a class, but when the choice was left up to me (for instance, picking out a Spanish - English dictionary for class), I went for the one with the prettiest cover. Not the best criteria.
Post a Comment