[Introduction to Manual Creation] What is the Design of an Easy-to-Understand Manual?

[Introduction to Manual Creation] What is the design of an easy-to-understand manual?

Hello! I am K, a consultant.
This time, we will focus on "design", which is often a concern when creating manuals, as the second part of "Introduction to Manual Creation". We will introduce tips for making designs easier to understand, using actual design examples.

Table of Contents

1. Design is not just about "looking good"!?
2. Confusing manual design that can easily lead to mistakes
3. Three steps to design an organized and easy-to-understand manual
4. Summary

1. Design is not just about "appearance"!?

When you hear the word "design" in regards to a manual, what do you imagine? Many people may think of the appearance or visual appeal. Indeed, a well-designed and stylish manual can increase motivation to read, making it an important aspect.

However, "a visually appealing manual does not necessarily mean an easy-to-understand manual." For professionals in manual creation, "design" does not only refer to appearance and visual appeal.

"Designing a manual" means "organizing the information included in the manual and devising ways to make it easy for the reader to understand." In other words, the key is to start with organizing the information. If you start with devising ways to present the information without organizing it, there is a possibility that the manual will become more difficult to understand due to the design."

One common mistake is to write different types of information, such as important and supplementary information, in the same style. This can bury important information and make it difficult to understand what is important. By organizing the information first and deciding "this information is important, this information is supplementary," this result can be avoided.

Have you understood that the foundation of design should be information organization? By organizing information, it becomes easier to find necessary information and also encourages us to look at the manual when we are in trouble.

Design plays an important role in manual creation. In order to prevent the manual from becoming difficult to understand and unused due to design, it is important to carefully consider design in the initial stages!

Here, we will talk a little more about cases where the manual has become difficult to understand due to design.

2. Confusing manual design that can easily lead to mistakes

We will talk about difficult-to-understand designs that Human Science Co., Ltd. has been involved in from among the case studies.

●Style is not consistent

Using styles such as bold, italics, and bullet points can confuse readers if they are not consistent.
Have you ever seen a manual like the one on the left, where the numbering is "①, ②..." or "1), 2)..."?
It's not a problem if "①, ②..." is used for business flow and "1), 2)..." is used for work procedures, for example, if the information types are different. The problem arises when multiple styles are used for the same type of information.
Readers may get confused and think, "Is this a different type of information because it's written in a different style?" This is a common issue when creating manuals with multiple people.

●Lacks balance

On the contrary, this is a case where it became difficult to understand because it was created simply without using much style, unlike the previous case.
Some may think, "Wouldn't it be easier to understand if it was created with a simple design?" However, that is not the case. As shown in the manual on the left, if everything is written in the same tone, it becomes difficult to distinguish "where the work procedure is written" and "what is important information and which is supplementary information" at a glance. This is because using too much or too little style can make it difficult to understand.
At this point, you may be thinking, "What should I do!?" Next, we will explain the method for designing a manual that is easy to understand.

3. Three Steps to Designing a Well-Organized and Easy-to-Understand Manual

To design an easy-to-understand manual, let's follow three steps.

Step 1: Organize the Information

List out supplementary notes, precautions, and work procedures to get an overview of what type of information is available. Before defining the style to be used in Step 3, it is important to organize and visualize the types of information. For detailed instructions, please refer to this blog post.

https://www.science.co.jp/document_blog/31016/

Step 2: Determine How to Present

Here is an example of improving the manual introduced in "No balance". Making the most important information stand out, such as the work procedure, makes it easier to understand. By visually adding contrast, you can understand at a glance what information is written.
In this way, let's decide how to show various information. Also, instead of listing in sentences, actively use tables and flowcharts. Furthermore, using icons and other visual aids to highlight important information will make it even easier to understand.

Step 3: Define the style

Let's define the style based on the presentation decided in Step 2.

Define colors, fonts, font sizes, and bullet points for each piece of information to unify the style. Also, define how to express flowcharts and other elements to ensure consistency in presentation across different locations. When creating manuals with multiple people, make sure to share the defined style guidelines.

Also, it is recommended to use headers and footers. When there are many pages, it can be difficult to know where you are in the manual. By including heading information in the header section of each page, it can help you confirm where you are reading. In the footer, including page numbers and making them searchable from the table of contents can make it easier to use.

For those who do not have the time to define styles, we recommend using a manual creation tool. The tool comes with pre-defined styles and templates, so there is no need to start from scratch.

If you are interested in our tools, please refer to this blog.
https://www.science.co.jp/document_blog/29997/

4. Summary

This time, we focused on the design of manuals and introduced the importance and key points of creating them. How was it? We hope you thought, "Design is not just about appearance, but the purpose is to organize information!" Please refer to this in the future when creating manuals.

"Even if you say that you don't have time to create a manual," "If you have too much information and don't know where to start," it is recommended to ask professionals for assistance.

Human Science has a proven track record of creating numerous manuals since 1985. We are a group of professionals in manual creation. We can provide comprehensive support from organizing current issues, devising improvement strategies, to creating customized manuals. If you have any difficulties in creating business manuals, please feel free to consult with us.

Features ①: Extensive track record of manual creation for large and global companies
Human Science has a track record of creating manuals for 243 companies and 3148 projects, mainly in the manufacturing and IT industries. Our clients include well-known companies such as DOCOMO Technology, Inc., Yahoo Japan Corporation, and Yamaha Corporation.

Feature ②: Investigation and Analysis by Experienced Consultants ~ Output
The creation of operation manuals will be handled by the experienced consultants at Human Science. Our skilled consultants will propose easy-to-understand operation manuals based on their extensive experience and provided materials. It is also possible to create manuals even without existing materials. The assigned consultant will conduct interviews and create the manual.

Feature 3: Not only manual creation, but also support for implementation
Human Science Co., Ltd. is responsible for the important phase of "implementation" after manual creation. For example, even after manual creation, we will continue to update the manual and hold manual creation seminars. We approach the implementation of manuals in the field by implementing various measures.

Thank you for reading until the end.
I would be happy if this blog could be a hint for creating easy-to-read manuals.

Tips for creating and establishing business manuals taught by professionals

Download here