A user manual provides instructions for using a product or service.
A manual is a publication that includes the fundamental aspects of a subject . It is a guide that helps you understand how something works, or that educates its readers about a topic in an orderly and concise way. A user is, on the other hand, the person who ordinarily uses something or who is the recipient of a product or service .
These two definitions allow us to understand the meaning of a user manual . This type of publication provides the necessary instructions so that a user can use a certain product or service. For example, if the user manual refers to a mobile phone (cell phone), it will include the concepts and guides necessary for its use, detailing the functions of its keys , the options available through the different menus, etc.
What is a user manual
A user manual is, therefore, a technical communication document that seeks to provide assistance to subjects who use a system . Beyond their specificity, the authors of the manuals try to use pleasant and simple language to reach the largest possible number of recipients.
Given their complexity, all electronic or computer products usually have their own user manual. The simplest items (such as a ball or a table) do not require explanations for consumers to know how to use them.
Most frequent content
User manuals are usually written in various languages and have both texts and images. In this way the understanding of the concepts is facilitated. Diagrams and schematics are also common.
A common structure of user manuals includes an introduction to the product in question, an index with the contents of the manual, the guide itself, a section of common problems and how to solve them, contact information and a glossary.
It is common for a user manual to include text and images.
The problem of translation in user manuals
In many cases, translations of user manuals are often unreliable, leaving it evident that the original document was written in a different language. In part, this problem may be justifiable if we take into account that certain technologies receive a specific name in their country of origin that contains a series of cultural and linguistic elements that are very difficult to adapt to other languages.
Nowadays, given the massification of the Internet and products such as smartphones (in themselves examples of a name in a foreign language), it is rare for someone to feel overwhelmed by terms like "email", "home" or "touch". »; However, two decades ago, the reality was very different.
Failure to read the instructions
User manuals suffer from a very particular phenomenon, which has comical nuances as well as tragic endings: very few people consult them. Generally, the decision not to read a manual is closely related to personality, to the type of person, and does not occur spontaneously; In other words, there are those who never do it and those who do not finish developing the product until they have studied its functions from a to z .
Although there are many devices that require very little intuition on the part of the user to be understood and used, not all of us enjoy that predisposition on an intellectual level; On the other hand, there are certain functions that, for different reasons, are not obvious and require specific information to be discovered.
Writing a manual has several objectives, and one of them is to warn consumers of the limitations of the products to avoid complaints about failures that could have been avoided. And this is the reason why we should all invest the few minutes necessary to learn about the items we purchase; The consequence of acting impatiently can be a wait of long weeks, until official technicians repair our devices, or send us a replacement, probably used.