In one of the standards committees for a new guideline for technical documentation, we recently discussed the recommendations we could give regarding the minimum contents for user manuals that are to be translated into foreign languages. Most of the members of the commission voted for a reduction of the contents to be translated, down to the requirements given by the appropriate standards and regulations according to the EU directives valid for the product. Since most of the directives are safety-related, the user manual would basically consist of the safety instructions for the product. The requirements that customers expect to find instructions for installation, and for the use and maintenance of the product, did not arise as a topic in the discussion.

If you understand the function of a committee that deals with new standards and regulations, then this attitude against the customer’s needs can be easily accepted,. However, if you as a manufacturer have to consider the field of technical documentation as part of a customer-oriented marketing strategy, it might be imprudent to just follow the directions given by law. The customer certainly can expect more from a user manual than the minimum (i.e. just safety instructions!).

More and more I read user manuals that obviously are based on the documentation-related norms and standards. I find these manuals are hard to read and understand, but they are law-proof! Yet by using a "lawyerish" style and wording in your technical documentation you might never achieve any lasting customer relationship. In this respect it is also not such a good idea to use the software tools now available for automated documentation assistance, where the technical writer just gives a short description of the product to be described and out come all paragraphs extracted from the appropriate norms and standards. You just fill in some product related details and your user manual is done!

Simply following the valid standards and regulations prescribed by European laws certainly does not result in good technical documentation. The "soul" of a manual, the apparent identification of the technical writer with the product, and neat workmanship in user-oriented structure and language, leads to the customer’s satisfaction with the product.

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