In order to sell your product in a specific market, you should make sure that your user manual complies with these requirements. Determine what topics will become sub-paragraphs by adding the subsection numbers. This lets all of your customers jump in on issues or feedback that is most important to them. Brands like Pagely, Apptentive, OptimizePress, and many others are using KnowAll to provide their customers with helpful guides and answers to critical questions. For users to truly understand how your product works, theyre always going to need a reference point. TechSmith Marketing Content Specialist and manager of the TechSmith Blog. The user manual should contain both procedural information (step-by-step instructions) and conceptual information (information the user needs in order to understand procedural information). Understandably, the benefits of a community-based approach are largely dependent on the type of product or service you provide. Philip used this feedback to optimize the user manual. You may also discover that something you thought was one task actually needs to be broken down into a few tasks for the sake of clarity. Design your user manuals with your customers in mind. Allowing you to explain specific topics in great detail, with the use of all traditional content editing elements youre already familiar with. Tango create beautiful user guides in seconds. In the long run, this will help to identify unique issues, but also help you create a much larger directory of answered support questions. If you want to know more about defining your audience and creating personas: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/persona/https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/08/a-closer-look-at-personas-part-1/https://www.prismnet.com/~hcexres/textbook/aud.html. The first thing users will see when visiting Slacks help center is a big search form, with suggested keywords for common questions users have. To identify the hazards that come with the use of a product, you can conduct a risk analysis. Leave us your e-mail address and stay up to date with relevant information, our ongoing projects, and what we have to say on social media! User manuals or end-user guides for web applications are the instruction materials intended to make users understand the web app properly. The template contains all the information and more from the list above. If you need to translate to several languages, working with a translation agency might save you lots of time. The User Manual Template can be used for creating your manual for your system, tool, device, instrument, or for creating an installation manual, software manual, operational manual, maintenance manual or training manual. This could be a translator who is experienced in translating technical content, with similar products or with translating user manuals. This type of user guide has a high likelihood of intimidating your user and causing them to call your support line instead of attempting to solve their problem independently. Start numbering PREPARATION PRODUCT FOR USE with number 4. Now all text has been created, the safety messages can be placed in the right place. What describes the user? Create step-by-step guides with a simple and professional look. Follow steps 1-2 from theEU compliance and/or steps 1-6 from theUS compliance articles to determine the legal framework for your instructions. How to use the my user manual template . Some of us are that person. So how do we kill two birds with one stone? When writing the user guide to accompany the product it is crucial to maintain focus on this problem. The hierarchy you use should follow a logical flow to guide your customers easily through exactly what they need to know from beginning to end. 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. Step 3. User Manual Template Use this simple user guide template to create interactive documentation and ensure customers' success with your product. Insights from those who have been there, done that. The answer is, with simplicity. Add red arrows, speech balloons, or a circle to capture users' attention and help them replicate necessary steps faster. On a mission to pet all the dogs. The user should know what feedback they may receive from the product; what they might see or here at any step of the process. but you are giving them the extra support that they need to fully understand how to use the product, in simple language, is the sweet spot for writing a user manual. Existing users Click the "sign in" button and enter the username and password you chose during your initial registration process in the boxes below "my account". There's nothing worse than outdated user documentation that no longer helps your customers get their job done. Exclude unnecessary material to avoid information overload (for example sales promotion, extensive repetition etc). An important step in the process of writing a user manual is the testing. [1] Talk to people who will use your device. The most common questions and feedback is handled through the Google Help portal. Philip is a Swedish 34-year business owner and inventor of the ISOVOX2, a portable vocal studio. When using the template for crafting the safety messages, I asked Philip to indicate whether a safety message is a supplemental directive, or should be placed as a grouped, section or embedded safety message. There is only one difference. Before you start creating any content for your manual, you'll first want to properly map out the structure of your manual. Finding the right information that solves the users problem should take as little time as possible. Look for a translator who can work directly in your Word or InDesign file or find an agency that can do the DTP works as well. This section of the Slacks Help Center homepage leads users in 6 different directions, each designed to address a specific use case for the product itself. In a few emails, I told him exactly what to do and how to use the relevant user manual template for his product type, step-by-step. Like other online documentation pages, KnowAll also embraces the introductory search form thats impossible to miss. Website User Manual Welcome to the new website for the Ohio Genealogical Society. This is embedded safety messages. This is done with safety warnings. The user plays the central role when drawing up a user manual. Training Manual This type of user manual provides a set of instructions related to the completion of a specific task, project or job. Create your template. Practical examples and specific explanations of results that users might have after completing each step in the user manual should be included wherever possible. User Manual Example For Web Application User manual template for web application - gun licence application form online User manual example for web application - sample letter to franchise tax board User manual sample for web application - lilly assistance program application pdf A well-designed manual contributes to a better brand and user experience. Action: Use the template to describe your user(s). Use the direct active voice and assertive commands. Make sure terms are familiar to the user, technical features and terms are well explained and use terms consistently. User manuals are created to assist in solving a problem, or teaching someone to do something new. More than 25 years of communications and marketing experience. INSTALLATION OF THE PRODUCT). Action: place the content from your Word file into the Indesign template. Service Manual allow you to access the website from any remote location. Although Philip used one of our paid templates, I have made afree template that you can use to achieve exactly the same results. I created this template in Indesign and asked Philip to adjust it to match his brand identity. Crowding your documentation with complicated illustrations, and dense blocks of text will give the sense that the user guide is too complex and inaccessible. Use the structure as shown above for the first, second and third level heading. Action: conduct a risk analysis and craft your safety messages using this template. Font and color choices should remain consistent throughout the document, and ideally between all of your user manuals. Have a look at the following safety messages: WARNING! Since the product itself is relatively complex with a steep learning curve, writing blog-style documentation pages helps customers to get a much tighter grasp on how to use the product. Ask the translator or agency about their quality procedures and who is going to revise the text after translation. Do that. Each topic can only be about one specific subject, has an identifiable purpose, and must be able to stand alone. Don't Delay, Try for $$$-Free-$$$ Today! Oops! When your employees are empowered with effective user guides they dont have to waste time searching for answers independently or taking up their colleagues and supervisors time with questions because they have access to the answers right in their user manual! 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. Get 29 user manual template website templates on ThemeForest such as WieldStrem University, Sacline Facebook Template, Mailway - Responsive E-mail Template In order to help Philip create and place a safety message, I have created anothertemplate. Instruction Manual An instruction manual is a type of user guide that provides basic instructions for how to use a product in its intended way. It complies with the requirements for his product. And heres why. When you choose to use the free one, make sure to follow the instructions from step6. Is the product used professionally or mainly privately? Like many startup companies, Philip needs to be very careful about where he spends his money. It only makes sense that we would use KnowAlls Help Center as the basis for a thorough overview of this theme. This article provides 101 excellent technical writing examples to help you create a user-centered manual that helps users find the information they're looking for. Describe any prerequisites that should be met before the actual instructions start. is a step-by-step set of instructions on using your product and is accessible 24/7 for self-help. Think of it as a knowledge base that unravels the usage of every feature across your product. Our manual template will help you set up a guide for your machinery, electrical product, toy or medical device. Or you can easily cut your efforts in half by using Tango. Creating accessible content for users who may have visual impairments, hearing impairments, or cognitive disabilities is an important factor in designing user manuals. Download. It could be an online knowledge base, printed manual, or video tutorials. Guitar player. Once youdownload the usermanualtemplate docyourself, you will see that a few standard chapters have been added, as well as some appendices. These two articles below will tell you how you can find out exactly which legislation applies to your product for the European and U.S. market and what the requirements are for your user manual. As a user wants information at the moment he/she needs it and thus does not think in channels, the best approach would be to provide the instructions omni-platform. You can use Loom for screen recordings or you can go for Tango and its automatic screen and mouse capturing when you walk through your process (e.g., while youre explaining how to use a particular feature). Thank you! 1 User Guide Templates 2 What is a user guide? Lets dive into the details and actions. Hit Complete, and you will get a table of contents, headlines, descriptions, and annotated screenshots for each step with no extra effort! And, it will spare your support team plenty of time that can be spent dealing with critical issues. For his product, it means that the following information is required for the user manual for his product: EU (relevantCE marking directives: LVD, EMC, RoHS, WEEE, REACH): Besides this legislation, there also is an international standard for user manuals, the IEC/IEEE 82079-1:2019. Science and sci-fi enthusiast. The reason to wait until the texts are ready is that creating or editing images can be time-consuming. If you want to know more about defining your users problems and creating topics: Philip has now identified the problems a user might have with his product during its lifecycle and he has now thought of the solution to solve the problem. Use simple language when crafting user documentation, no matter how complex your product is. More and more customers browse the web from their mobile or handheld devices, which means that having a responsive website is critical to your success. Operation manuals outline the roles, responsibilities and processes pertaining to a company or organization. In order to do so, I asked Philip to useachecklist. Most time and money needs to be spent on product development and setting up the sales channels. This manual is a set of instructions that will guide a professional to complete a process or building an application. The readers should know exactly what they are looking to have completed and what it should look like the before moving on to the next step. Tango is a tool for creating step-by-step documentation with screenshots in seconds.. If they address them all to support chat, customer support specialists wont be able to cope with the avalanche of incoming messages. As you write a user manual you may need to use icons, symbols or codes to help give the instructions needed. As an educated industrial design engineer, this is how we started all our design assignments. Make sure your user guide is well-structured, understandable, and visual. Like a table of contents helps to direct users to the appropriate place in a print document, adding a searchable component to your digital user manuals will support an enjoyable ease of use for users trying to solve a problem by accessing it. Though, one thing stands out more than the rest. As you know your product best and who your audience is, it might be a good idea to provide the translator or agency a glossary or a list with the terminology that you want to use. 2. User manuals are vital in every business sector. When you want to write a manual that helps your user to solve problems, you first need to define who your user is. A usermanual consists of textual visual information (illustrations, screenshots, tables etc.) The headings are the (sub-)titles that precede the actual text. A user manual is a technical communication document intended to give assistance to people on how to use a product. Start with creating a structured skeleton, following the logical flow of the narrative: The Get Started section of technical documentation, Tango. Action: Find a translator or agency that fits your needs and have your user manual translated. Size: 49 KB. 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. Safeguarding and complementary protective measures. The platform helps millions of businesses to conduct important work-related discussions in real-time. Depending on the market in which you are going to sell your product, you might need to translate the user manual. I asked Philip to identify the problems and solutions that his user might encounter during the product lifecycle. Thats all there is to it. Philip didn't need to conduct these steps, as the template he used already contained the legal content as required by the relevant directives. In the European Union, for some product groups, it is still restricted to provide the user manual printed with the product. These requirements also include requirements on the content of your user manual and safety instructions. Typical problems might include: installing the product, using the product, using the product safely, maintaining the product and disposing of the product. Also known as user guides, instruction manuals, or user manuals, user documentation is there to hold your customer's hand as they learn about your product. Make sure to begin with the basics and build in a logical progression toward the more advanced features of your product. Overview Instructions: Briefly describe in general terms the system/application and the purpose for which it is intended, written in non-technical terminology. Are you looking for a user manual template because you need to create a user manual by yourself? The user manual should be translated to the language(s) of the country where the product is sold. These details will help you imagine the customers journey from problem to solution and map out the steps needed to get them through the process. Risk of serious injuries. That includes the reasonably foreseeable use of the product. And by optimizing the HTML version for search engines he makes it easier for his user to find information for his user. If the product you sell could pose a danger to users (think space heaters, power tools, etc) having warnings and safety precautions documented and available to users by way of a user guide is an effective (though not foolproof) way to avoid legal trouble associated with injures or other damage caused by misuse. When writing end-user manuals, we must follow a concrete set of rules to make it practical and intuitive to navigate for new and existing customers. Action: create all other content for your user manual. Now that you've learned best practices for writing an excellent user guide, let's jump into how to establish your first set of user documentation. A user manual should give assistance to people by providing information about how to use a product. Likewise, keep an eye out for mentions on social media and Q&A sites. User guides are a much-needed supplement to excellent customer service. The results are as follows: This article describes exactly the steps we followed. Safety information shall still be delivered in paper form along with the product. With a persona, you make some reasonable assumptions about the characteristics of your user. Even though the intended use has now been clearly defined, this does not mean that using a product is completely without any risks. If applicable, organize your sections logically. Even though each product is unique and will require different elements to create truly great user docs, there are some end user documentation best practices to follow no matter what. 2. As the name implies, most of the support is provided by the community itself. Ideally, testing should be performed on individuals who have never used your product or viewed the manual before. You can download the free template here: Before actually using the User Manual Template and the other tools that I developed for Philip, I wanted to make sure we have the same starting point. Keep it Simple when filling out your creative users manual sample and use PDFSimpli. In addition to setting specifics like fonts (type and size), contrast requirements, and colorways, youll want to include the following in your user manual template: The content of your user manual should be as simple and easy to follow as possible. Select images to use in your guide. Not only do visuals break up long blocks of text, but they also eliminate some of the bulk of text that can make user manuals intimidating. The best part of all this is that you can get the same results as Philip did by following this step-by-step process on how to create a user manual. This widespread manufacturing of diverse products necessitates the creation of individualized user manuals tailored to each unique item. Do this.2. ), Use headlines to separate information but keep the sequence of the narration, Insert emojis to make your text sound friendly and welcoming , Define what content you should craft for the, Determine what the most frequent questions are regarding each product's features, Decide what your user guide will look like a block scheme, a table of contents, or duplicating the navigation menu of the product. In this article, well look at what a user manual is, explore the various types you can create, and lay out exactly how to write user guides that your users are eager to put to good use. If applicable, modify sections 1-3 and the appendices according to your own needs. Action: Send the draft version of the user manual to anyone within your team who might be able to deliver feedback. You never know how customers wish to use your product until you see it for yourself. 2023 INSTRKTIV |GT&C|Privacy|Sitemap, Join the over 25,000 subscribers to our newsletter, In thisarticle Im going to show you how one entrepreneur used the. The platform helps millions of businesses to conduct important work-related discussions in real-time. And, although straightforward as far as communication goes Slack offers a plethora of features and tools that boost business productivity. Explain your written instructions with annotated screenshots or video tutorials one picture for each step. Both the content and format need to be considered and reviewed for simplicity and ease. In the left column of the Lifecycle tab, the stages of a products lifecycle are mentioned. Ask them to combine all feedback into one document before sending it back to you. Help pages themselves are structured similarly to blog posts. 5 Preparing to write the document 6 Procedure Manual Templates 7 How do you write a user guide? Action: place all safety messages in the right location in the user manual. First the goals of the user guide need to be established and a plan created that will allow those goals to be reached. In a lot of cases, a search form alone is sufficient to help resolve a large proportion of questions your customers might have. Change the section headings according to your own ToC. Besides that, upon request from a consumer, a paper user manual should be made available to the consumer. And thats totally fine. Packaging contents and Tools to be used). WARNING! We all know that person that instinctively tosses the user manual out with the packaging without so much as a second glance. User manuals are an excellent supplement to your customer service experience for the end user but they are also beneficial for the business owner as a part of the customer support system as well. 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. This stimulates discussion of your team members and prevents disagreement at a later stage. Paying too little attention to describing the reasonably foreseeable misuse will affect a company's liability. It answers loads of users' how-to questions in seconds and delivers a great customer experience. It is important to define these as early as possible in your user manual in order to avoid any confusion or frustration on behalf of the reader. This can go a long way in reducing any liabilities associated with creating something for the public. Visuals are actually proven to absorb visual information 7% faster than written information. Lets take a look at why user documentation is important, but also why its beneficial to your business in the long-term. They can be provided in either print or digital format or both! Lets take a look. How To Write a Best-in-Class User Guide for Software [Examples]. Observe them working through the process and make note of where they get stuck as they progress through the user manual. Based on the first template for Philip, we have developed templates for the following product groups: User manuals can be provided in either a paper format or as an electronic document (PDF or placed online or on-device in HTML). This can be done by creating a user profile, also named a persona. He placed a pdf version of the full manual online. You need to put in the work to understand the problem the user has or the goal they hope to reach in using your product as well as how they interact with your brand. In the first part of the specific section: In the Preface any supplemental directives can be placed, such as. What amazing customer care! Something went wrong while submitting the form. 2023-05-17 Ferry Vermeulen Tools & Efficiency. 1. Step 2. He created a separate quick start guide to be provided with the product as well. Identifying the user for your user manual will help you make good decisions about things like the tone, the amount of detail to include, and how to present the content. Writing and distributing user manuals is one way to help illustrate that you have done your due diligence in testing your product and how best to interact with it safely. You can generate specific content which is then indexed and ranked by search engines. We call this version the textual content design. What is the User Manual for Web Application? DTP stands forDesktop Publishing and Wikipedia describes it as the creation of documents using page layout skills on a personal computer primarily for print. Using acronyms, buzzwords, or slang used around the office will leave your customers feeling confused, frustrated, and ill-equipped. Additionally, to the intended use, many more standards, directives and regulations also require you to include a description of the reasonably foreseeable misuse. The documentation outlining a companys policies, procedures and best practices is called an organizational policy manual. This is important as it will help the consumers learn how to use the product correctly. While he doesnt eat carbs, we forgive him because he gives a damn (especially about people). Add a column to the left. He knows that there are some legal requirements for the content of the manual and he wants a well designed and user-friendly instructional manual that contributes to a good customer experience. My Account To login, register, view, or edit your data, choose My Account at the top of the home page. Most commonly, it is written for electronic devices, household appliances, video games, and computer software and hardware. Often, photos are not as informative because they contain too much information. A user manual goes by many names. Build a knowledge base and help your customers help themselves. A user manual is a document provided to a user that helps in using a particular system, product or service seamlessly. User documentation can be delivered to customers through a variety of different mediums. Whether its Search, Gmail, or Android billions of people land on Googles services each day. Make sure the headings are self-explanatory. Other names, or other forms of a user manual, might be: User guide Technical documentation Action: To define the structure of your user manual: You have now created the Table of Contents (ToC). To achieve that simplicity, use the following recommendations: Not only do screen recordings or annotated screenshots complement the text, but they also make the text easier to follow and provide users with comprehensive guidance to complete a particular task.