Getting installation instructions right can reduce returns and consultant Userview specialises in helping manufacturers speak clearly. Sean Hannam reports...
We've all been there. As a consumer, you buy an appliance or an item of flat-pack furniture from a shop. When you get it home, you open the box, go to read the instructions and find that they are so complicated or poorly written that you've no hope of making the device work or assembling the furniture.
So, if you're anything like me, you give up and take the product back to the shop - and clearly that's a costly situation both retailer and manufacturer would rather avoid.
Established in 1994, Userview is a UK company that specialises in creating product instructions that are easy to use and comply with International Standard, BS EN 62079:2001 for instructions.
According to Userview, this improves the user experience and increases profits for brand owners and retailers by saving them time, reducing complaints, cutting 'No Fault Found' returns by up to 20% and saving litigation.
It regularly tracks attitudes to instructions and has worked with brands including Crosswater, LG and Dulux, as well as retailers such as B&Q, Bathstore, Homebase and the Home Retail Group.
"We work with flat-pack furniture and we're big in bathrooms - anywhere where electricity and water installations are needed," says Userview director Craig Thatcher.
His company can work on improving several areas of instructions such as writing, illustrations, artwork, language translations, DVDs and video clips.
"We have an in-house digital video studio with lighting, cameras, voiceover and editing facilities to create helpful instruction video clips that can be delivered to a user's PC or mobile phone," says Thatcher.
For Crosswater, Userview created special video footage for the download section of the company's website, showing how to install brassware products - including fixing to a bath and plumbing in, removing and replacing a tap cartridge on a bath shower mixer and troubleshooting and rectifying thermostatic control problems.
"The company [Crosswater] spends less time on the phone to consumers now that there are video clips on the website," says Thatcher.
Userview has also worked with Crosswater's other brand Bauhaus on a new range of Italian- made furniture like basins, vanity units, wall- hung storage, wall-hung worktop tower storage units and mirrors.
"We've worked with Bauhaus and its sister companies Crosswater and Simpsons for a number of years on both written instructions and video installation guides for their websites. This time, we designed and produced several four-page instruction booklets for some new, stylish bathroom furniture ranges," says Thatcher.
Other recent Userview projects include working on instructions for furniture designer Simon Pengelly, who designed the Baltic range of bathroom furniture that is exclusive to Bathstore.
According to consumer research undertaken by Userview, poor instructions were most frequently found with complex products where the user required a relatively high degree of application and understanding.
The most commonly mentioned problems with instructions were the diagrams and how they worked with the written information. Consumers complained that they could not understand diagrams and photos, that instructions were unclear, poorly written, too technical, long-winded and used too much jargon.
Lighting, flat-pack furniture and hi-tech items such as computers and accessories, cameras, camcorders, mobile phones, TVs and VCRS were among the worst offenders.
The research showed that 15% of people would return a product because of poor instructions, but that number would certainly be a lot higher if consumers realised they were entitled to do so.
"While nearly everyone said they recognised the importance of instructions, they were reticent about whether they would return an item if it had poor instructions. Fifteen per cent said that they would, 34% said they would not make a return, while 46% said they weren't sure," says Thatcher. "I think it's a real missed opportunity for manufacturers and retailers. What tends to happen is that all their efforts go into developing the products but not the instructions. It seems obvious, but consumers felt that instructions and products should be designed from the user's perspective and not the manufacturer's."
"We can help to improve the consumers' 'out of box' experience, make products easier to install, improve the safety and reduce frustration, help line calls and complaints. We use lots of clear diagrams and white space in our instructions. When consumers were asked what would make product instructions easier to use, there was a recurring theme that can be summed up with the words: clear, concise, straightforward, simple and step by step."
