Chapter 2: Applications of Technical Writing

2.7: User Guides

By: David McMurrey and Tamara Powell

Introduction to User Guides

A user guide is essentially a book-length document containing instructions on installing, using, or troubleshooting a hardware or software product. A user guide can be very brief—for example, only 10 or 20 pages or it can be a full-length book of 200 pages or more. While this definition assumes computers, a user guide can provide operating instructions on practically anything—lawnmowers, microwave ovens, dishwashers, and so on.

The more complex the product, the greater the page count. When this happens, some elements of the user guide get split out into their own separate volumes—especially the installation procedures, troubleshooting procedures, and the commands. A user guide can even contain a brief tutorial—for example, getting users started using the product—but if there is too much tutorial, it too goes into a separate book.

Style and Format of User Guides

A user guide is a combination of many things presented in this online textbook. At its core its instruction writing; you need to be good at the writing style, headings, lists, notices, highlighting, tables, and graphics commonly used in instructions. As a set of instructions, a user guide should use the style and format that is presented elsewhere in this online textbook:

• Headings. Use headings to mark off key contents of the information so that readers can find it quickly.
• Lists. Use numbered and bulleted lists to help readers scan information quickly.
• Special notices. Use special notices such as warnings, cautions, and notes to alert readers to potential problems or emphasize special points.
• Instructional design. In general, use the standard design of instructions; primarily, this means task-oriented headings and sections and numbered vertical lists for actual steps that readers are to perform.

Instructions—and therefore user guides—also make abundant use of:

• Graphics. Show readers key components of the objects they will be working with, before and after views, and illustrations of key actions that readers must perform.
• Tables. Provide statistical information and other such details in easy-to-access table form. In user guides, tables are particularly useful whenever reference-type information must be presented.
• Highlighting. Use a consistent and standard scheme of highlighting (bold, italics, alternate fonts, color, caps, and so on).

Components of User Guides

As a book, a user guide must have some combination of the standard book-design components such as the following:

• Front and back covers
• Title page
• Edition notice
• Trademarks
• Disclaimers
• Warranties
• License agreements
• Safety notices
• Preface
• Appendixes
• Glossary
• Index
• Reader comment form

There is no standard combination or sequence of these elements; every company does it differently. Details on the contents, format, and design of these elements can be found in the book design chapter.

Information Included in User Guides

Here's review the common contents of user guides:

Instructions. The most obvious are those step-by-step directions on how to assemble, operate, or troubleshoot the product. Instructions in user guide should generally be task-oriented—that is, written for specific tasks that users must perform. Instructions should generally use vertical numbered lists for actions that must be performed in a required sequence. Similar or closely related instructions in user guides should be grouped into chapters.

Precautionary information. You'll see notes, warning, caution, and even danger notices in user guides. These represent liability concerns for the manufacturer of the product.

Reference information. User guides typically contain plenty of reference information, but only up to a certain point. For example, if there are numerous commands, a separate book for commands is necessary. Reference information in user guides is often presented in tables: columnal lists of settings, descriptions, variables, parameters, flags, and so on.

Getting started information. Some user guides will actually include brief tutorials that will help new users get acquainted with using the product.

About the product. User guides also provide some description of the product, a review of its essential features or its new features. Sometimes this information also gets put into a separate volume, if it is extensive. Typically, the volume will be called something like "Introducing New Product..."

Technical background. Sometimes, user guides will include technical explanations of how the product works, what physical or chemical principles are essential to its operation, and so on. For example, you will see considerable background in user guides for graphic or audio programs—you can't operate them without understanding the concepts of brightness, saturation, and hue; μ law, A law, and other such.

Process and Internal Documents for User Guides

An important part of user guides—in fact, of almost any technical document—is the process that produces it:

• Initial planning. Early planning on a user guide involves needs assessment (is any documentation needed at all?), audience analysis (who will be using the user guide? what are their needs?), task analysis (what will users use the product for? what are their common tasks?), library plan (what books and media, in addition to a user guide, are needed to support the product?), and so on.
• Documentation proposal. If you are working freelance or as part of an independent documentation firm, you may have to write a documentation proposal in an effort to win a contract to do a certain technical documentation project.
• Documentation plan. User guides need documentation plans, which are internal supporting documents that specify content, audience, design, format, production team members, schedule, and other such information about a documentation project and its "deliverables." The documentation plan resembles the documentation proposal in certain ways, but the plan represents an established plan agreed upon by everybody involved in the production process (and that means both the user guide and the product it documents).
• Prototype and specifications. Important planning tools, which also serve as useful reference tools during a documentation project, include the prototype of the user guide and the specifications for the user guide. The prototype is a dummy version of the book with all planned components of the book (see the list on book-design components) and all planned elements (see the list under format and style). However, the prototype uses "greeked" text (also known as Lorem ipsum) like the example shown.

Lorem ipsum
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullam corper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan.

Typically, the prototype of the user guide is very brief: it needs to include only as many pages as it takes to illustrate every unique textual component and textual element that will be used in the user guide. Specifications are descriptions of a book design in table form. Specifications describe every unique component or element of a book, so that it can be recreated by someone who might not have access to the electronic files, templates, or styles of that book.

• Template and style catalog. A well-designed user guide, and a well-designed process to produce that user guide, should include templates and style catalogs. A template is an electronic file that defines such aspects of the user guide as page size, headers and footers, page-numbering style, regular and special page layout, and other such detail. A style catalog is also an electronic thing that defines the format and style of textual elements such as headings, headers, footers, lists, paragraphs, tables, and so on. For example, a style for a "heading 1" might specify 24-point Arial bold with 24 picas above and 12 picas below. Styles help you create a user guide more efficiently; styles also help you maintain consistency in the format and style of that user guide.
• Multiple review drafts & sign-off. A good process for the production of a user guide also includes several drafts that editors, technical experts, usability testers, and documentation team members can review and provide comments on. You as writer then implement those comments and produce a new draft for these same people to review again. When everybody is satisfied with the draft of the user guide (or worn out or out of time), they sign off on the user guide, and it can then go into "production," which means producing the finished bound copies or the PDF that is made available to users.

As you can see, a user guide brings together many of the topics covered in this online textbook. If you are taking a technical writing course, you probably cannot implement all these features and phases of a user guide. Get with your instructor to see which are required.