I posted last week about a quick-start guide I used at work for a headset. I don’t mean to pick at someone else’s work, but I pulled the guide out again in order to see if there was any information on a certain topic. (I tried doing some voiceover recording using the headset, and the microphone picked up my voice so clearly that I could sometimes hear little smacking noises when I played the recordings back. I wanted to see if I could reduce the microphone sensitivity.)

I noticed that a section called “Safety” was on the back. The first three list items in this section read something like, “Read these instructions. Keep these instructions. Read all warnings.”

These seem like things that would make sense to tell the reader at the outset rather than on the back side in the midst of other information. Especially in time of knee-jerk lawsuits, it’s important for technical communicators to protect both their organizations and the product users up front by providing information needed to use products safely. I think it would be pretty difficult to hurt myself using a headset, but if someone went to the trouble of providing safety information, it would be best placed first. Then, because I’m lazy, at least I’m reminded at the outset that I should read those warnings.

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  3. Quick-Start Guides Require a Minimalist Mindset
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