When it could reasonably be foreseen that the cooling system may be used as a system to cool organs, this should be described in the instructions. By doing so, you, as the manufacturer, will limit your liability and you can focus on only describing how to use the system to cool medicines. Figure 1. Reasonably foreseeable misuse? Even though the intended use has now been clearly defined, this does not mean that using a product is completely without any risks.
To identify the hazards that come with the use of a product, you can conduct a risk analysis. A risk analysis can also be mandatory for certain product groups, such as low-voltage equipment, toys, machinery and equipment for use in explosive atmospheres. Standards, like the ISO , have been developed on how to conduct a risk analysis.
According to this method, there is the following hierarchy of risk-reducing measures:. This means that the user guide should warn of any residual risks related to the use of the product. This is done with safety warnings.
A good safety warning describes the nature of a hazardous situation, the consequences of not avoiding a hazardous situation and the method s for avoiding it.
Rotating parts. Risk of serious injuries. Keep hands clear. Then you want to warn the user where a hazardous situation might be encountered. Do this. Do that. This is embedded safety messages. General text general text general text. In the EU, depending on the kind of product, it might be allowed to provide only the safety information in printed form and the rest of the information online.
Action: conduct a risk analysis and craft your safety messages using this template. Now I asked Philip to create all other content, such as the procedures, technical specs and legal information. Again, for most product groups there are paid templates available which might make the work easier.
These templates contain all legal texts, mandatory disposal information, copyright statements and comply with the IEC standard on user instructions. When using the template for crafting the safety messages, I asked Philip to indicate whether a safety message is a supplemental directive, or should be placed as a grouped, section or embedded safety message. A user manual should give assistance to people by providing information about how to use a product.
The crafting of meaningful headings is one of the tools that aid users in finding information. Philip has now created the draft version of his user manual, using the user manual template.
We call this version the textual content design. As Philip has a business partner and a developer with in-depth technical product knowledge, I asked Philip to let them review the work so far. Both his business partner and the developer provided feedback. Philip used this feedback to optimize the user manual. Action: Send the draft version of the user manual to anyone within your team who might be able to deliver feedback.
Ask them to combine all feedback into one document before sending it back to you. This stimulates discussion of your team members and prevents disagreement at a later stage. Once the user manual has been reviewed and optimized, the texts are more or less definite. This means that any images can now be created and added to the content. The reason to wait until the texts are ready is that creating or editing images can be time-consuming. As images should support, replace, or augment text, you want to wait to create them until the texts are final.
Images in user manuals may include illustrations, photos, screenshots, tables, diagrams and schematics. I advised Philip not to use photos as a cheap alternative for illustrations.
Often, photos are not as informative because they contain too much information. Besides that, photos can make a user manual look messy. Before we start making it look nice and translate the content, we want to be sure that the content is complete. You can adjust the User Manual Template in MS Word by adding a company logo and adjust the font, colours et cetera, but that might have limitations. When you know how to work with Adobe Indesign, or are willing to learn to work with it, this will offer you much greater design possibilities.
Action: Adjust the User Manual Template to fit your brand identity, or download the InDesign user manual template and adjust it. Philip now has both the content of his user manual Word file and the user manual template InDesign file.
The content needs to be put into the InDesign template. This is called Desktop Publishing. Action: place the content from your Word file into the Indesign template. If you decided not to use the InDesign template but stuck to the Word file, then you can skip this step. Depending on the market in which you are going to sell your product, you might need to translate the user manual. In general, a user manual should be available in a format that is easily accessible to the user.
That can be printed, or used online or on-device. In the European Union, for some product groups, it is still restricted to provide the user manual printed with the product. However, as of April , the instructions of many product groups may be delivered in a different format rather than in print. There is one exception, however. Safety information shall still be delivered in paper form along with the product. Besides that, upon request from a consumer, a paper user manual should be made available to the consumer.
The best part of all this is that you can get the same results as Philip did by following this step-by-step process on how to create a user manual. And he did this without any knowledge of technical writing. The results are as follows: A manual that enables 1st run of product to ship on time with no delays and passing customs without any problems. I have listed this information below. What is the definition of a user manual? Other names, or other forms of a user manual, might be: User guide Technical documentation Instruction manual Operational manual Training manual Quick Start Guide Installation manual Maintenance manual Software manual Besides the primary goal of a user manual to assist a user , secondary goals could be creating a better user experience and meeting legal requirements.
What information should be in a user manual? Based on the first template for Philip, we have developed templates for the following product groups: Medical Devices Toys Machinery Electronics What formats does a user manual have?
Through the following links you can download a user manual sample for documentation: IKEA installation instructions Jura user manual Step 2 Identify the User s of Your User Manual Template Ok, so now Philip has some basic knowledge about user manuals. Is the product used professionally or mainly privately? What other technical experiences do they have? What describes the user? I have created a template that contains the questions.
I asked Philip to fill out the template. I did this for Philip. If the problem is too complex, you could break it down into chunks. Action: To define the structure of your user manual: Copy the content from the Lifecycle [product name] tab to the ToC [product name] tab.
On the ToC [product name] tab , replace product name with your own product name. Add a column to the left. If applicable, organize your sections logically. Determine what topics will become chapters by adding chapter numbers.
We will add some more chapters in the next step. Determine what topics will become paragraphs by adding the section numbers. Determine what topics will become sub-paragraphs by adding the subsection numbers. Step 5 Create Meaningful Headings Each topic in the user manual gets its own heading. So, Philip has just created the sub- titles for his topics. I asked Philip to redirect his headings and to take notice of the following general guidelines: Use the structure as shown above for the first, second and third level heading.
Make sure the headings are self-explanatory. Snagit comes with a bunch of free, professionally designed templates, and with TechSmith Assets for Snagit , you get access to a ton more! Learn their pain points and try to address them as best you can.
Find out what they tell you is needed to know to best use your products. For electronic user documentation, this can be as simple as providing links to tutorials, FAQs, user forums, and more. But even print documentation can include things like website addresses and phone numbers for further support. Step-by-step guides help avoid long blocks of text and provide a much clearer way to show a process than trying to explain it via text alone. Snagit provides an easy-to-use Step Tool that helps you create great step-by-step documentation.
Plus, the Combine Images Tool enables you to combine individual screenshots and other images into a single image for easier editing and mark up. Every great set of user documents starts with a plan. Here are some tips on how to get where you want to go. Many people assume that if you know your product, you can just start creating your documentation. The answers to those questions shape how you create your documentation.
Planning ensures a smooth process and a better user document. Rely on your subject matter experts for the more in-depth knowledge, but you should know how to use it yourself before you try to teach someone else. Will it be print only? Will it be electronic? If so, where will it live? However, unless you have a very good reason, I recommend at least having an electronic version available on your website.
A print only version will work for most people, but are you prepared to create a braille version for users who may be blind or visually impaired? Tools exist to make electronic documentation easier for all to access , but print only versions provide a much more difficult accessibility problem. Instead, make an electronic version available on your website as normal website text. A user guide is only great if it helps your customers use your product to the best of their ability.
Before your new creation goes out into the world at large, you want to test it. Here are a few tips! As noted above, this gives electronic documentation a huge advantage over print.
However, even print only docs can be updated and made available for download on your website. Be sure that what you give your customers actually helps them use your product. If you remember nothing else, keep in mind that great user documentation should be created, designed, and presented in a way that is most helpful to your users. Nowadays, user documentation is almost always offered online, which has helped technical writers be more imaginative in how they assist users.
Great user documentation should include: Plain language, simplicity, visuals, a focus on the problem, a logical hierarchy and flow, a table of contents, searchable content, accessible content, good design, feedback from real users, and links to further resources. Great user documentation can be made in four simple steps: First Know your goals and create a plan to achieve them. Next, create your guide based on your plan.
Then test out your guide to make sure it does the job before you set it free. Finally, keep it up to date. When your product changes, update your documentation to reflect the changes. TechSmith Marketing Content Specialist. Science Enthusiast. Next up is a remarkably unique template for creating a brand manual that instantly catches the eye. It features an effortlessly stylish design that can be tweaked to suit your requirements using Adobe InDesign.
Certainly, one of our favorite options when it comes to the best brand manual, and style guide templates. Another professional brand style guide template with all the right page layouts for crafting the perfect style guide for modern businesses. This template comes in InDesign file format with fully customizable design elements. This brand manual template features a landscape design. The free version of the template only includes 8 page layouts.
This brand manual template comes in multiple file formats, allowing you to edit and customize it using your favorite app. The layouts come in A4 and US Letter sizes. It features an elegant page design you can use to craft a brand style guide with a professional look and feel.
This brand manual template doubles as a brand guideline as well. It comes with a dark and attractive color scheme that makes it perfect for a technology, startup, or design brand.
The template includes InDesign and Affinity Publisher file formats. If you are looking for a strictly professional brand manual and style guideline template for your business, this simple and elegant option is an excellent choice.
Created for Adobe InDesign, the template can be fully customized to match your vision. Another minimalistic option, this template is a solid contender for your cash. It features a clean, minimal design perfectly suited to a wide range of businesses, and industries.
We really like this beautiful template, and you will too. Here we have an attention-grabbing template for you to get your hands on. It allows easy customization, ensuring you spend more time preparing the contents of the brand manual, and less time editing it. This stylish template definitely deserves a place on your shortlist.
Looking for a brand manual template with a minimal and clean design? Then be sure to download this template. The template includes 30 different page layouts. This colorful brand manual template comes in A4 size. It features 20 page layouts where you can effectively showcase your brand design.
You can customize it to change colors, fonts, and images in just a few clicks as well. A beautiful brand guidelines template for lifestyle brands. This template includes 40 different page layouts in A4 and US Letter sizes. It also features 2 cover designs you can customize to your preference. A great free brand identity template you can also use to craft brand manuals. This template comes with 46 unique page layouts in A4 and US Letter size. The template is also available in Illustrator and InDesign file formats.
Most professional brand manuals usually feature very simple designs. Mainly to give more attention to the contents within. This template also has a simple design that highlights your content. It includes 56 unique page layouts with fully customizable designs. You can also edit the template using Adobe InDesign. A minimal design is a beautiful design. The template includes 12 unique page layouts.
Enough to highlight the key aspects of the brand. Every page is customizable with InDesign. It includes text and paragraph styles as well.
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