Instruction Manuals

Ever wonder why they don't get read?

Every electronic and mechanical device bought these days comes with instruction manuals. The average person, tosses it aside until they discover a problem with the way they think the device should behave. Some would rather check with their friends and relatives about how their VCR should be set up, than read the manual that came with it. There are even people that make mostly correct guesses and get their computers up and running right out of the box (including installing a bevy of software and hardware goodies) on the first attempt, without even cracking open the manual. People that fall into that catagory are called lucky bastards.

It is often said that "Real men don't read manuals!", but that is a lie. I run into the results of people that didn't take time to read the manual every work day. I often have to try and figure out what they did in order to get the device to fail for me. You see, I read the manual prior to doing any diagnostic testing of the equipment I am asked to repair.

Most manuals are BORING!

The lawyers want manuals to be written in language geared for the median intelligence of television viewers. Since television viewers rarely take time to read, this is a waste of printing. It also means the content will be written in a way that would place a severe strain on those who are most likely to read it, making it nearly impossible to stay awake while reading it (even if one has taken No-Doz washed down with Jolt Cola).

Some items now come with a video. It's designed to put you to sleep almost as fast as a strong sedative. The only one that kept me awake was the one concerning the water chemistry of my spa (only because the girl in it looked great in her bikini). The problemwithit, they had the guy talking about the kind of stuff I prefer to use so I turned off the volume, fast forwarded to the girl's next scenes (unfortunately she must have felt the need to get dressed), and then looked through the pile of papers until I found the instructions I needed.

The most usefull manuals include a parts list. I often find extra screws of one size and too few nuts of another size (or the opposite arrangement). I'm not sure if this is due to the math skills of the people who fill the box or a case of vengeance against me for not buying the over priced but already assembled version instead of the kit. I keep a fairly well stocked collection of nuts and bolts in order to combat this (it's saved the day more than once). I've even ran into the situation where the manual understated the number of screws that would be used. (I found out later that the change was made after the manual had been printed.) Accuracy is vital to proper assembly, shouldn't the manual reflect this?

I'd like to see manuals and assembly instructions become less of a lesson in sleep inducement and have the content written to reflect use by intelligent people. I've seen enough bad manuals, stop adding to the pile before it reaches critical mass!