DESIGN MANAGEMENT

PRODUCT MANUAL DESIGN

Often product manuals are forgotten as part of the brand experience.

Also in Asia, people tend to value the manual less, they rely on what the service desk or support office tells them. However, in Europe and the USA, consumers are more textual, they trust the text and believe the brand had put serious time and effort on this.

 

That means bad manuals destroy the work you do to build your brand.

 

Bad packaging

If a customer sees:

• Language errors; they doubt quality
• Chinese text; they doubt quality
• No logic: they doubt the brand
• Horrible images; they doubt it’s a real company
• Endless mistakes; they doubt trust
• Inconsistency amongst products; they doubt original design

 

Orange Branding understands that a manual might add extra cost again, but you have two options:

• Do it well and professionally and create a brand image
• Do the basics, keep it super simple and create trust

 

Tips for manual Design

• Master your subject
• Adapt to the audience
• Choose a style
• Be concise and precise
• Structure your manuals
• Illustrate with photos
• Use other visuals
• Use videos when needed
• Distribute your manuals
• Update the content

 

Above all, remember that the manual is also a way to sell more to the consumers that actually read it and love it! Why would you want to lose that opportunity as extra sales power?

 

No budget?

If you have no budget for manuals, try to buy a box of LEGO or some complex IKEA cabinet and experience what great manuals do and how it makes you feel.

 

Then think again if there really is no budget.

 

Read more:

https://dokit.io/10-golden-rules-to-help-you-create-a-great-user-manual/

https://medium.com/@yuriysklyar/the-best-of-manual-and-user-guide-design-d4f53aa3cd5e

http://templatelab.com/instruction-manual-templates/

https://instrktiv.com/en/user-manual-template/

https://stepshot.net/how-to-create-a-user-instruction-manual/