1   About Readers and Manuals

Do Readers Read Manuals?

Think about the last time you used a manual. Did you sit down and start to read at the beginning and continue all the way to the end as though it were a novel? Probably not. If you’re like most readers, you picked up the manual hoping that it would help you solve a problem, answer a question, or provide instructions on doing something.

You probably started in the index at the back (if you were lucky and it had an index) and looked up the topic you were interested in. Maybe you had to try a few different words before you found a page reference. Or maybe you started with the table of contents at the front. You scanned the headings looking first for the chapter, then for the section that would likely contain the information you were looking for.

Once you got to the right section in the manual, you probably didn’t start reading yet. You probably began by turning the pages quickly and scanning the headings. And once you got to the right heading, you likely still didn’t start reading. You likely started skimming down through each paragraph reading a word here or a line there. Only once you thought you might be in the right place did you actually start to read the text.

Sound familiar? It should. It’s the way most people use manuals. What’s important to remember is that few people read them cover to cover starting at the front the way they would read a novel. Most manuals are reference sources that readers skim and scan for information—they don’t read them.

Unlike textbooks, which are read carefully in sequential page order, manuals are read in a more random and haphazard way. As a result, you can’t be certain where readers will start reading, or how thoroughly they have read other sections.

Why do readers skim and scan though manuals rather than read them? Part of the reason is the role of manuals, and the other part is lack of time and information overload.

Role of Manuals

An organization’s manuals are created to record and communicate important decisions and information about its operations and administration—things like the policy on maternity leave or how to process an invoice through accounts payable. Many employees, particularly those who have been there a long time, will already know these things. New employees probably won’t.

But the maternity leave policy probably won’t interest us unless we’re thinking of starting a family, and processing invoices through accounts payable won’t interest us unless that’s our job. Most of us will only read the parts of a manual that apply to us, and only when we need that information. In fact, looking something up in a manual is usually not the first way we try to find information—usually we’ll ask a co-worker. Only if no one knows the information, or if no one is available, will we turn to a manual.

Lack of Time and Information Overload

Most people find that they have more things to do than they have time. Do you have interesting and useful journals and magazines on your desk that you know you really should read, but you simply don’t have time to get to them? The past decade of job losses, downsizing, and budget cuts have left most of us with just enough time to get the essential things done, but little time for extras, such as reading.

So when we pick up a manual, we simply don’t have the time to read it thoroughly, whether we want to or not. Some recent studies suggest that average readers spend only five minutes looking unsuccessfully for information before they give up and try something else. This means that one of the most critical factors for the success of our manuals is how long it takes readers to find information. If they can’t find it in five minutes, we’ve failed.

Implications for Manuals

The need to provide rapid access to information has significant implications for almost every aspect of preparing manuals, from how we organize information and the headings we choose, to the navigational aids we provide, such as the table of contents and index:

• We need to include only information that is important to readers, and exclude all other information (the bigger the manual, the more difficult it will be to find information).

• The writing must be concise, with few unnecessary words or thoughts.

• The navigational aids, such as the table of contents, index, and numbering systems, must enable readers to locate the information they’re looking for within five minutes.

• We should make few assumptions about what the readers have already read (for example, because we’ve introduced a technical term in the first chapter doesn’t mean we can use the term from that point on without having to define it again).