Dumbest instructions I’ve seen this month

April 15, 2012 | Dumbest instructions I’ve seen this month | 3296 hit(s)

I recently ran across the following set of instructions (the name of the app — MyApp — is changed, but they're otherwise verbatim):

Setup Instructions
1. From the Setup Location, run MyApp.msi.
2. Click Next.
3. Click Next for the default install location, or set the install location.
4. Click Next.
5. After installation is complete, click Close.

This a terrible set of instructions. For starters, an .msi file is an installation program (Microsoft Installer). When you launch an .msi, it starts an installation wizard. A wizard (a.k.a. assistant), which is to say, a process that walks you through each step of the process. Wizards were created precisely for multi-step processes so that users didn't need step-by-step instructions. And it doesn't matter whether you know that an .msi file will launch the wizard — all you need to tell people is to launch the .msi, presto, done. If this just seems too bald for you, well, fine, add "... and follow the on-screen instructions" or some other yeah-yeah-whatever text.

Second, these instructions are not telling you what to do in context. "Click Next." Click Next." These instructions are like telling someone how to do something blindfolded.

Third, when they do provide a pretense of information ("Click Next for the default ..."), they're a) repeating what the wizard is already telling you and b) telling you, essentially, "make a change, or don't." The instruction doesn't provide any useful information about how or why to make a choice, just that you might want to (or not). Which will already be evident from the wizard, see point 1.

Fourth, for god's sake, even my grandmother would know enough to close an app when she's done with it.

Finally, all of this is in the context of a tool that we use at work. Surely if anyone knows how to navigate an .msi installation wizard, it's people who work at Microsoft. So even if there were useful information in these instructions, they don't take into account the audience, which basically consists of people who've probably run hundreds of .msi installers before.

Really the takeaway here is that sometimes you just don't need to write any instructions at all, because users don't need them. In those cases, well ... don't.

Julian 16 Apr 12 - 4:59 AM

I have sympathy for that author.

I worked on a web-site that had a very complicated internal flow, depending on the role of the user - there were dozens of different categories of users, most of them internal staff from different departments in the same organisation - but we managed to hide most of the complexity in a wizard with simple steps (and behind the scenes look-ups into org-chart databases).

I often had to push back against requests from higher-ups for a step-by-step document to explain the process for their staff. I would only share simple instructions like "Visit this URL, and follow the on-screen prompts." rather than wasting our time producing huge and unmaintainable documents describing every possible outcome for each user type, that would never be read.

I confirmed it wasn't the users themselves asking for it, but their department heads - I got the impression that they considered detailed work instructions on every task to be mandatory for all tools their staff used, even self-describing ones. I can understand someone caving in and providing useless documents to satisfy such demands.

mike 16 Apr 12 - 1:46 PM

@Julian, I can see that happening. Of late, I've lived in a somewhat different world, where you have to make a good business case for bothering to document much of anything, but I've certainly seen situations where process sort of took precedent over, say, actual need. I do pity the writer in those cases ...

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