Seth's Blog : The empathy of instructions

The empathy of instructions

It’s difficult to write directions.

A user interface, a map or a recipe all require empathy.

That’s because the person writing it knows something the reader doesn’t. In fact, that’s the only reason to do it.

But because instructions exist to bridge this gap, we benefit by understanding and focusing on the gap. The instructions aren’t there to remind you of how to do something. They serve to help someone who doesn’t know, learn.

Here’s a useful way to begin:

Assume less.

Yes, the person reading your recipe knows what a knife is, but do they know you keep your mustard in the food cabinet, not the fridge?

List every step you could imagine, and then list some more.

Once the overdone, step-by-step instructions exist, begin removing them. The interface for your induction cooktop probably doesn’t benefit from having icons so obscure they’re meaningless, but it also doesn’t need every step for boiling water enunciated in capital letters.

In my experience in reading instructions, it’s easier for the user to skip over steps that are too complete than it is to try to guess what the person writing the directions had in mind.