"I wonder what this function does...."
When this thought occurs to someone using electronic equipment, the place they can turn for information is the owner's manual (also known as the "user manual," "operation manual," "instruction manual," etc.).
However, have you ever wondered how the people who make the owner's manuals put together their information?
At Pioneer, owner's manuals are produced by Pioneer Media Creates, which is one of our subsidiaries. Because our products are so varied and diverse, so are the types and contents of our owner's manuals. Here, I will demonstrate how a manual for car navigation equipment was created.
* It All Starts with Analyses
Producing an owner's manual starts with three types of analyses. The "product analysis" examines the concepts, features, and other aspects of a new product. The "user analysis" focuses on a product from a user's point of view, asking questions such as: "When and where will people likely need to use this manual?" The "manual analysis" consults the manuals of current products.
For the car navigation equipment here, special emphasis was placed on the user analysis. All three analyses led us to design the manual with three main goals: ease of use, ease of handling, and easy-to-understand explanations.
* Writing the First Draft: Inspiration and Perspiration
After the analyses comes the writing of the first draft. Of course, those of us who are making the manual must be perfectly acquainted with the product and its functions. We must study each and every feature and function with the utmost care, consulting with the product designers and studying the specifications and other materials.
It is our job to ask the types of questions that users might ask, so we always try to look at products with a fresh eye. Because some customers ask questions that we never expected, we need to prepare as much knowledge as possible.
To make explanations easier to understand, we could simply add more and more words to the manual, but this would result in a thick and awkward volume. If a product is the first of its kind in the world or industry, or comes with completely new features, a thick manual is inevitable. However, there is a limit to the number of pages that should be put in a manual _ whatever product designers, marketers, or anyone else may say!
This makes it necessary for us to trim and adjust so that there is only as much information as users need. This process is a hard and nerve-wracking one, and often leads to dead ends. When I do hit a dead end, I go home, take a bath, and re-energize. In the back of my minds, though, I'm still constantly thinking of how I can cut pages. Then... eureka! Inspiration hits, and suddenly I know how to add illustrations for maximum effect, or explain a function scene by scene. If I'm at home when an idea hits me, I write down a memo, or send it to my office e-mail address.
When the first draft is complete and these hectic creative days are over, we go on to the next stage: proofreading.
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