The manual & the issues

The manual & the issues

·

After months of research and discussions, it has become evident that there is something wrong with how consumers are introduced to the products they purchase.

We reviewed hundreds of products and we realised that the most frequent way of introducing products to consumers, and that is nearly 9 out of 10 times, is by printed B/W user manuals. There are many names for these manuals some of which are; User guide, instruction manual, owners manual, operator manual or product manual. While there are many names and shapes for the printed manual, they all tend to fall short in providing a useful and enjoyable product onboarding experience.

Limiting the product onboarding to the printed manual as described above, comes with a number of shortcomings. Some of the obvious ones:

  • Customers don't enjoy reading manuals

  • Customers find manuals challenging to use

  • Information is not presented in a customer friendly manner

  • Information is not shown in a prioritised way

  • Content localisation becomes a problem and not benefit due to localisation overload

  • Images are low quality

  • Do not provide digital information access points

  • The above list is extensive. Due to this finding, we have decided to finance a global consumer survey with the purpose of understanding the above in granular detail and more importantly map the end-consumers product introduction/onboarding needs and behaviour.

Over the next couple of months, we will be analysing the data and use it to steer our innovative solutions. We plan to share some of the first findings with you towards the end of February 2018.