Customer Satisfaction Lessons Learned from Building Furniture with Wordless Documentation  

Documentation and package design play a major role in customer satisfaction. The author tested three sets of wordless documentation by building pieces of furniture from three different manufacturers. While the construction methods, packaging, and wordless documentation methods were on the surface very similar, small differences had a significant impact on the usability of the instructions and the overall customer satisfaction with the documentation and the product. Decisions that were handled differently included visual verification of parts, whether or not extra hardware was provided and how it was provided, the appropriateness of the hardware, the quality of the hardware, the need for additional tools, and the care evidenced in packaging and labeling of parts. From these experiences, she makes recommendations for enhancing customer satisfaction that apply not just to wordless documentation, but to other consumer products.

Norris Bradford, Annette. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Documentation>Technical Illustration>User Experience

Using Comics in Technical Documentation

This article is based on the research and feedback I received from a number of user experience designers, usability specialists, product developers and writers, which led me to engage in a dialogue with the users.

Gupta, Rajeep. Usability Interface (2007). Articles>Documentation>Technical Illustration>User Experience