TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
RE: "The rest of the story" (WAS: another twist for instructions)
Subject:RE: "The rest of the story" (WAS: another twist for instructions) From:"Ehr, Meg" <Meg -dot- Ehr -at- smartworks -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 15 Mar 2001 13:44:51 -0500
I was just starting to write about IKEA's instructions when I saw Sanjay's
message...
When I bought my IKEA dresser, I don't think there were any (or at least,
not many) actual written instructions. Instead, there were lots of diagrams
with blowups of the exact action to perform ("put this connector in that
hole in this direction and turn it that way" kind of illustrations, but
without descriptive text). It took a few minutes for me to figure out how to
"read" the directions, but once I did, I was off and running. Took me a few
days (and *two* trips back to the store to exchange damaged/incorrect
pieces), but I got all 100 (or nearly) pieces together without too much
confusion. Five years and five moves later, it's still rock-solid (and
heavier than...).
Anyway, I was much happier to have *no* text than poorly-written or
poorly-translated instructions. I thought the diagrams were pretty good, but
IKEA's connectors weren't familiar, which threw me at first. For
instructions that might otherwise need to be translated into multiple
languages, though, it was an interesting approach.
IPCC 01, the IEEE International Professional Communication Conference,
October 24-27, 2001 at historic La Fonda in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
CALL FOR PAPERS OPEN UNTIL MARCH 15. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
