Making instructions more intelligible to users

Just how important are clear instructions to product safety ? Here’s one indicator : inadequate instructions or warnings are the most common defect cited in product liability claims, and one of the most common reasons for product recalls. The effectiveness of instructions depends on how many users read and follow them.

However, few product safety standards specify how prominent warnings need to be, or require instructions to be checked for intelligibility. This is particularly important when the intended user is a consumer without any professional training. Unsurprisingly therefore, most product injuries are a result of user “ error ”. People make mistakes and, of course,
as the saying goes, “ to err is human ”.

Fortunately, by following established good practice in preparing instructions, users can be helped and guided towards a better understanding of how to use a product more effectively and greater awareness of how to avoid getting into dangerous situations.

Safer and happier consumers

Freed from confusing diagrams and gobbledegook translations, consumers can be safer, happier with the product, and more likely to buy again. This aim is now more achievable thanks to the ISO/IEC 8207 series published in 2012, under the general title Preparation of instructions for use – Structuring, content and presentation. Part 1 lays down some general principles and detailed requirements. These should be applied when preparing instructions for use for any product – from a label on a tin of paint to a technical manual for large industrial machinery. This breadth of scope is possible because, whatever the medium of transmission or type of product, the common factor is the user’s ability to process information in words or images.

The new standard draws on this and the good practice built up in preceding versions of ISO/IEC Guide 37, as well as guidance on writing product instructions from consumer safety enforcement bodies and educational material for the technical communication profession. Most importantly, the ISO/IEC 82079 series establishes some quantitative evaluation criteria and specifies the documentary evidence required to support a claim that instructions provided comply with the standard. It will therefore be of interest to authorities enforcing product safety regulation, lawyers in cases involving injury liability claims, designers of hardware, software or packaging, compliance managers,importers, buyers, and those who compile, commission or evaluate user instructions.

Increased role and impact

Many product standards already include a general requirement for the provision of instructions for use (and/or requirements for specific warnings). Therefore, as each standard comes up for review, its technical committee (TC) will need to assess what sort of reference to the ISO/IEC 82079 series might help reduce injuries due to improper use of products by the user.

To assist TCs, the revised edition of ISO/IEC Guide 37 provides a short introduction to the principles of good communication of instructions and warnings. It has a checklist for standards writers and offers customizable model clauses suitable for inserting requirements into product standards to make a reference to ISO/IEC 82079-1. Both documents have taken into account the potential of new media and the Internet to offer instructional material in alternative formats such as large print, speech and additional languages. They emphasize, however, the importance of understanding the capabilities of a product’s target group, whether this includes elderly or disabled users, trained professionals, or children and adolescents.

Future directions

The next step is to agree to a “ routemap ” for the development of subsequent parts of ISO/IEC 82079. While there is no necessity for additional parts of ISO/IEC 82079 specific to each product sector, extra guidance is desirable for some specific forms of instruction.

For example, ISO/COPOLCO, the ISO Committee on consumer policy, sees a need for another part devoted to instructions for products intended for assembly by consumers. This is where sequential detailed illustrations are often critical to avoiding misinterpretation. Meanwhile, for electronic products, it has been suggested that an additional part of ISO/IEC 82079 may be needed to address screen-based instructions where the information presented depends on users’ 
actions and sensors of product operation. More importantly, in order to be most effective, product instructions and their presentation need to be integrated into a products’ conformity assessment procedure, national safety laws and contractual specifications. As awareness of ISO/IEC 82079 and ISO/IEC Guide 37 grows and their use in product standards increases, consumers will less often feel frustrated by instructions and – more importantly – be at less risk. 

Reference: ISO Focus