4.3 Instructions

Instructions might be the technical communication genre with which you are already the most familiar. Have you ever had to assemble a piece of furniture? Are you interested in DIY home improvement projects? Have you ever built a complex LEGO structure?

It is very likely that you have had to do at least one of these things listed above, and that when you did you relied on a set of instructions to help guide your process. Think back to the most recent, or most interesting, interaction you have had with instructions. Now, ask yourself the following questions:

• Why did you turn to instructions rather than figure out how to complete the task on your own?
• How much did you rely on these instructions? In other words, did you follow them closely, step by step? Did you only turn to them as needed and figure out pieces of the process on your own? Did you read through sections multiple times?
• How did you interact with this text? Did you read or watch along as you went? Did you watch a video or read through the entire process before beginning?
• Were the instructions easy to follow? Why or why not?
• What specific features made the instructions easy or difficult (ie use of images, headings, mode)?
• How were the instructions delivered? Did you watch a video? Read a pamphlet? Did you have to turn pages of a book or scroll down a screen on your phone?
• What could have made these instructions better?

Sometimes instructions are useful because you want to get things “right,” say for example because you are building a complex LEGO structure or making a new recipe. Other times instructions are crucial because getting parts of a complex process “wrong” means that the entire project is ruined, or the structure you’ve built is unsafe. There are even scenarios when failing to complete a step in a complex process means life or death.

Atul Gawande’s article “The Checklist” researched the difference that a checklist can make in patient health and recovery in hospital ICUs.^[1] Read the article and participate in the activity with your class. Consider whether you are surprised to learn what a significant difference checklists could make. Consider, too, how checklists are a type of instructional document. How are they similar to a “how to” video on YouTube? How are they different?

Checklists, particularly the kind described by Gawande, are just one small example of technical instructions. Sometimes the best way to get a sense of genre conventions, and where those conventions are shifting and flexible, is to read a variety of documents that fall under that genre category. After reading through several examples, pay attention to 1) what they are doing that looks similar or what features they seem to have in common, and 2) what the documents do differently or where they make novel or divergent choices. In this way, you’ll get a sense of the boundaries and constraints, but also of the flexibility, within a given genre.

Take a look at the examples below. Each of the links takes you to a different type of instructional document.

• Standard Operating Procedure: Pouring Dental Impressions
• Instructions: MacBook Pro 13″ Unibody Early 2011 RAM Replacement
• Instructions: Ikea Skogsta Chair Assembly
• Instructions: Saris Superbones 3 Bike Rack
• Operating Instructions: LifePak defibrillator
• User Guide: Zojirushi Rice Cooker
• Procedures: Hamline University Building Evacuation Procedures
• Protocol: Feline URI Treatment

As we’ve already discussed, sometimes videos or images can be more effective than text when it comes to relaying complex information, or when it comes to instructions. With that in mind, the videos below describe instructions as a common genre in technical communication.

The first video, below, provides an introduction to instructional documents including features such as an effective title, list of materials, clear steps, and integration of text and visual elements.

What are Instructional Documents?

Based on a Lego® model, the video below addresses the characteristics of instructional documents and strategies used to construct effective step-by-step procedures using text and visual integration to reinforce tasks. Key components are the sections of instructional documents: lists of materials used, tasks broken down to major and minor steps, and integration of text with visuals. Guidelines include numbering and chunking tasks, using imperative voice, and diagramming parts. You will see one completed step of a procedure for assembling a Lego® figure.

Instructional Documents: Writing Effective Steps

Take another look at some sample instructions from the Lego® website:

Classic Lego Instructions 1

Classic Lego Instructions 2

What do you notice about these instructions? What are some features that stand out to you? How do they use only images and numbers to instruct their users? What are some positive attributes of these examples, and what would you change? Who do you think the target audience likely is, and are these instructions accessible for that audience?

Take some time to search for other sample instructions, and consider what you like and dislike, what makes them accessible or inaccessible, as a potential user.

Just like with descriptions, it is so important to be sure that instructions are accessible to your target audience. In order to create accessible content, you must consider your audience, their needs and context, the rhetorical situation, and how diversity, equity, and inclusion matters in this specific communication situation.

Creating accessible instructions depends upon knowing how your audience moves through the world and what they already know or practice or understand about the task. Instructions often help people complete some task that involves a variety of tools, so it’s also important to consider your audience’s relationship to those tools and what they might have access to or what they are familiar with.

As discussed elsewhere in this text, it is important to consider the language you use AND the way that you communicate–videos, images, audio, and written language all help to ensure accessibility. Document design is an important part of creating an accessible document, too. Be sure that your audience understands where and how to access different steps in the instructions process.

Another thing to consider is how your audience will likely interact with your instructions. Will they read them from beginning to end and then begin the process for themselves? Will they be in their homes, or at work, or maybe outdoors? What tools will they likely have access to and where can they find the necessary tools or materials? Are there any cautions, warnings, or especially important considerations?

A great way to understand how your target audience interacts with instructions, and to understand what parts of your instructions could be improved, is usability testing. Usability testing is discussed in detail elsewhere; when conducting usability testing remember that an important way to focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion is to pay attention to your users and whether you are assembling a group of usability testers who can represent diverse experiences. In other words, if you conduct usability testing for a set of instructions, but all your users are white, middle class, heterosexual, cisgendered, Christian, college-educated men, are you really learning about a wide user experience? Can you, from that group, make assumptions about how folks will interact with your instructional design?

As you create instructions, and as you conduct usability testing and revisions based on what you discover through usability testing, stop frequently to reflect on whether you are working to represent and include marginalized voices in your document. Consider, during the creation and revision process:

• Who is my target audience?
• Is my target audience represented in the group of collaborators creating these instructions?
• Is my target audience represented in my group of users during usability testing?