What Makes a Manual Look Easy to Use?

Abstract

What makes a customer manual look attractive and easy to use? How do typeface, margins, tabs, color, style of headings, and so on, contribute to this perception?

We believe that a manual that looks hard to use may discourage users from even trying to use it. Why struggle to make a manual accurate, well-written, and complete if users never turn to it in the first place?

In the study reported here, eighteen subjects ranked six different customer manuals on nineteen dimensions, for example, use of color and overall attractiveness. The manuals were actual production manuals that were written to be used by full-time administrators of complicated electronic equipment. Analyses of the data clearly show that those features that help the user to find information (i.e., tabs, headings, and an impression of good organization) are important in determining judgments of perceived ease of use.