Read the Manual!
Jun 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Mark Johnson, Senior Contributing Editor, Audio
Read the manual! How often have I been admonished with that statement, only to go to the manual and find my particular issue was not addressed sufficiently for resolution, or not addressed at all.
We live in an age where high-power DSP products can and will do just about anything. Take digital mixing consoles, for instance. It’s not just about faders, pots, and LEDs/meters anymore—now there are also gates, compressors, reverbs, scene and setting presets, channel fades, routing, remote mic preamps, etc., involved. All these bells and whistles sometimes make just operating the technology somewhat daunting.
Manuals for these increasingly complex products run the gamut from quick start guide-type leaflets to multiple-edition, Harry Potter novel-sized tomes.
Many of the quick start guide-type manuals are written by product development managers with an intimate knowledge of the product. And that’s just how they read: The authors assume we share their familiarity with the product, so aspects of operation are often mentioned off-handedly. Whether intentional or not, this does not exactly lead to a helpful, informative manual. For instance, when I called customer service about problems my daughter was having with her iMac, I was asked on multiple occasions if I had consulted the manual. (The “manual” consisted of a poster-sized sheet of paper with four operational steps on each side, the last one ending in “It’s that easy!”) I understand the goal of the quick start guide but, in my experience, more information and instruction is always needed at some point.
Then there are the Harry Potter novel-sized manuals. These cover everything in microscopic detail except the one thing you are trying to figure out. That, or the particular subject you’re looking for is not listed in what would seem like the logical section, and you have to read every page to find it.
There is a fine art to manual writing, and it involves considering the goal of the person who will be reading it—to successfully use the product in question. As products become more sophisticated and all-encompassing, the need for thorough, well-written manuals to accompany them will only increase.
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