Product Instruction Kindergarten

Some like the sandbox, some like story time.
And nobody likes to feel stupid.

Ask any new teacher. One certain way to jump off the tenure track is to flunk the “addresses diverse learning styles” check mark on the evaluation.

There are people of all intelligences who simply will not learn out of a book. Others have to have the book. Some will respond better to a silent video, others to a comic book, others to instructions read out loud. Philips, for one, offers a Flash driven DVD that (not always successfully) walk you through all the steps of its PhotoFrame but don’t expect to also find the instruction book anywhere in the packaging. Instead, you have to pop in the DVD, open the PDF (And download the PDF software, if you don’t already have it) then print it out and then you you can have the bloody instruction book.

For providers of product instruction, here’s the problem: whatever media you choose will inherently leave some people out. It’ll shut them down, make kindergartners and adults alike throw learning tantrums just like in a Sylvan Learning Center commercial. Kindergarten teachers fill the room with all sorts of different ways to learn many of the same things. People who provide product instruction can do that, too. What’s more, it’s actually not too difficult to put it together in a wide variety of media.

If you don’t want to leave anybody out, here’s what product instruction should include:

	A printed manual that looks more like a best seller. Though a user’s guide is hardly what one would call literature, many of the same principles apply.

It should be filled with playful language that incites smiles and thoughts. And, in this day of cheap digital photography, there’s no excuse for skimping on the illustration.

• Give it attitude. Make it Martha Stewart, Bob Vila, Michael Moore, Vince with Sham Wow. Don’t forget that thing your High School English instructors called “voice.” Make it smile.
• Speaking of High School English, think back to all those literary terms. Alliterations, puns, metaphors and the like have been around for a long time because they engage the reader.
• Don’t clutter it up. Just like a speaker needs to pause, the layout should pause as well. White space rules.
• Don’t forget that thing called “voice.” Make it smile.