Do I Need a Quick-Start Guide?
You’ve just bought a new digital camera and you’re anxious to start taking pictures. You pull out the manual and note that it is half an inch thick and full of tiny print. Your heart sinks. All you want to do is take a few snapshots of the new baby to email them to relatives. But wait! Here’s a fold-up card labeled “How to Get Started.” Maybe Aunt Gertrude will get those baby pictures after all.
How do you know when to provide a “quick-start” guide—abbreviated instructions to enable a user to pick up the product and go right to work? Are there any downsides to such a guide? Ask yourself these questions:
- If the user tries to use the product without reading the manual, is he or she likely to damage the product?
We know that many people (even technical writers!) avoid reading manuals and try to figure out how products work by playing with them and trying things out. If they might damage the product by doing so, maybe you can get them to read a very short, user-friendly quick-start guide and avoid a service call.
- Is basic operation of the product relatively simple, but a lot of its features require detailed instructions?
The classic example of this is the VCR. If all you want to do is play a rented videotape (if you can still find one!), you don’t need to wade through instructions on how to tape your favorite TV show automatically every week with built-in adjustments for the start and stop daylight savings time. If you know that your users will want to do one or two simple operations right away, consider giving them a quick-start guide.
Why don’t all manufacturers provide quick-start guides? Is there any drawback to them? Some products simply don’t lend themselves to a quick-start guide. If basic operation is not simple, such as for a complex programmable industrial printing press, a quick-start guide just won’t work. If the product is appropriate for such a guide, the chief drawback is that you cannot include all the warnings in the quick-start guide without turning it into a slow-start guide. If there are immediate injury hazards if the user doesn’t read the full manual, consider an on-product warning label and, naturally, address those hazards in the guide as well. And be sure to include a statement in the quick-start guide directing users to the full manual for more information.
What do you say to the company attorney who worries that the presence of a quick-start guide could be interpreted as an invitation to ignore the manual? You can point out that the quick-start guide is designed for people who already ignore the manual. With a quick-start guide, at least they have a better chance of seeing critical warnings and learning to use the product safely.