General > General Technical Chat

What Ever Happened to Well Documented User Manuals

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jonovid:
I have noticed a trend in the use of poorly documented printed user manuals.
or is it user manuals for non technical people? lots of warnings & compliance logos but
the heart of the user manual is missing. QR code this or that
but the link is little better. be it a camping generator set or a television set.
it's not like their is a shortage of paper used in the packaging of the product.
the most egregious omission from user manuals is how the logic of the product works.
can I use both inputs and outputs at the same time? or can I disable this or that.
is it a line level or speaker audio jack? watts?
 the best user manual I have seen was the 1982 Commodore 64 ring binder user manual.

Berni:
Indeed product documentation is getting dumbed down.

Most users don't even know what the specs mean, possibly even the office paper pusher tasked with writing the manual does not know what they mean, he just got some numbers from the engineering department and put them in somewhere. Most users will not read the manual and just try to use it, if it does not work they will either google the problem, or for even less tech savvy people, call up someone who is a 'computer person' and nag them to fix it.

Last week i was specing out my new PC and it was infuriating how deep i had to dig on some manufacturers public websites to find the specs for a product. They all hit you in the face with fancy product photos, marketing wank, animations... etc only when you scroll all the way trough that you find a dropdown window that you have to click to expand in order to actually see the specs. WHY?!  |O  I don't care how a SSD or motherboard looks from all sort of artistic animated angles. I wanna know how fast it is and if it works with what i want to plug it into.

RoGeorge:
Legend says nobody ever reads the user manual.  :)

jpanhalt:
There are still User Manuals, but useful information has been displaced with twice as many pages of warnings about what not to do, such as, don't put the cat in the dishwasher or bathe the baby in the clothes washer.

mendip_discovery:
Manuals don't make money. 90% of people don't use them even if they existed but as sales haven't slumped since no longer producing them then there is no gain in doing the extra work.

I often see in companies a lack of documentation for their own stuff as that takes money and time and the person who needs to write it is often too busy to do it.

I get frustrated when I am looking for details about sizes etc. only to be given the size of the box it comes in. Another was I wanted to know what the maximum fan size I could fit inside a computer case, with little or no specifications shown.

This week I wanted to look up the specifications for a device (Microtronics Blueforce) and the Technical Sheet shows very little information other than all the standards it can be used for. Sadly this is a device you have to pay the manufacturer each year to get a code so you can use it as it won't work if the calibration date expires.

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