Instructions for Use

It can be tricky for a product’s instructions to communicate to end-users how to use the product safely and effectively. People interpret text differently from each other; some people have a higher or lower reading level; some people skim, or think they don’t need all the instructions, or only look at the pictures, or ignore the pictures, or are colorblind, or … etc. Core Human Factors meets this challenge by infusing the instruction-writing process with a human factors perspective, aiming to incorporate knowledge of the range of human characteristics throughout the entire instruction-writing process.

To help explain how we go about producing broadly understandable, safe, and effective instructions, we have been iteratively developing a “fictional” set of instructions for an insulin pen that does not exist. Below are some of the human factors processes that we put into instructions. However, heuristics, principles, and knowledge are not enough. Conducting formative empirical testing with representative users is necessary to make sure each step is as user friendly as we (the designers) hope it is.

• Our in-house graphic design team works iteratively with our instructional experts and with clients to efficiently produce an integrated product.
• We emphasize the chronological order of steps through layout and text grouping.
• Text is above pictures to encourage reading the text.
• Because some readers focus on pictures while others focus on text, all steps necessary for safe use are contained in these separately. If a user only looks at pictures or only looks at text, the IFU will still tell a safe story.
• Caption text is in user-friendly bullets rather than paragraphs.
• No safety-related text “floats” outside of numbered steps.
• Headings are not just labels, they are instructional and convey general safe use.
• Headings are precise and specific.
• We favor device-specific words instead of object pronouns like “it.” Instead of “swab it,” “swab the skin.”
• Steps with multiple instructions have text labeled with letters and matching letters in the illustration.
• We optimize font size for easy reading.
• We declutter -- we remove unnecessary text and give information room to breathe in white space.