Assignment scenario analysis and implementation

¶ … Audience Analysis: End User/Consumer

With over 300 stores in nearly 40 countries, IKEA has firmly established itself as an international brand. The target users of IKEA products will speak dozens of different languages, which is one of the main reasons why IKEA produces text-free instruction manuals for the do-it-yourself assembly of their products. The audience of nearly any IKEA product is diverse in terms of age, income or social class status, ethnicity, education level, lifestyle choices, and gender. IKEA furniture can be used in a home, office, or commercial setting. From college students to property owners who are furnishing an income-generating rental apartment, an incredibly diverse consumer group will use IKEA products like the Besta Norum.

Each IKEA product has a name in addition to a catalog and SKU number. This helps users to distinguish between one product and another and to purchase additional materials, accessories, and add-ons that are suitable for that product line. The IKEA product names usually refer to places in the company's native Sweden and throughout Scandinavia.

Target audience may include professional contractors, but the hallmark of IKEA furniture products is their ability to be assembled at home by consumers with no prior knowledge of carpentry, construction, or furniture assembly. Assembling an IKEA product is something that one person can usually do alone, and which all but the youngest children can do too.

When reading a set of instructions for assembling an IKEA product like the Besta Norum, the target audience requires clarity and simplicity. Technical terms are to be avoided altogether. In most cases, audience members will have few tools with which to work during the assembly process and know nothing related to the technical jargon of furniture. For this reason, as well as to reflect the linguistic diversity of its target audience, the IKEA instruction manuals for assembly are almost always solely pictorial and avoid the clumsiness of text. There are many advantages to relying on pictures in IKEA manuals, but the over-reliance on pictures also ignores a potentially large group of end users who do not have strong visualization skills or whose cognitive preferences are more verbal in nature. In other words, some users would prefer that IKEA instructions had verbal as well as pictorial cues.

Audience Analysis: Memo Reader (User Experience Research Manager)

The User Experience Research Manager works collaboratively with design and marketing departments to ensure that the consumer is happy with IKEA products. The User Experience Research Manager is responsible for promoting positive consumer experiences by helping shape design and marketing decisions to accord with user needs. As the reader of this memo, the User Experience Research Manager will be interested to know how the instruction manuals impact consumer impressions not just of the Besta Norum product but of the IKEA company and brand. The User Experience Research Manager needs to know specifically how the instruction manual can be improved, which is why the memorandum is important.

The User Experience Research Manager will be familiar with the overall mission of the company and does not need much background information. However, some explanation of the target consumer group might help the User Experience Research Manager understand what the end user requires out of an effective instruction manual. The User Experience Research Manager already knows that an IKEA instruction manual targets a culturally, linguistically, and age-diverse consumer group and that pictorial representations are part of the company policy in manual design. What the User Experience Research Manager needs to know is how instruction manuals like the one for Besta Norum can be improved. Specific topics that the User Experience Research Manager will want addressed include the length and layout of the document; quality and clarity of the images; and how accurately the drawings reflect the actual product. The User Experience Research Manager will need to know why the memorandum is important, and why he or she should care. It must be made clear that the instructions are so poor as to impact the consumer experience and possibly sully the IKEA brand. Finally, the User Experience Research Manager should ideally attempt to assemble the product according to the current instructions to have a greater sense of the nature of the problems and how they can be fixed.

Recommendation Memo:

Purpose Statement: This memorandum is in regards to the instruction manual for the Besta Norum IKEA product. The Besta Norum instruction manual has several problems that will impact consumer experience. Thus, it is important to bring to your attention the specific problems with the Besta Norum product. This memorandum will also include a specific list of recommendations for how the instruction manual can be improved.

The main weaknesses of the Besta Norum instruction manual are as follows:

Unclear Product Identification (Besta Norum cover page, PDF p. 1)

The first problem with the Besta Norum instruction manual is that the user does not know what the product actually is. All the consumer can see on the manual cover is a picture of three differently sized rectangles and the product name. IKEA cannot assume that the user will remember what the Besta Norum looked like after viewing it in the store.

Unclear Identification of Hazards (Besta Norum 2, PDF p. 3)

An exclamation point inside a triangle appears beside one of the drawings on page 3 of the instruction manual. The symbol seems to alert the reader of a potential safety hazard, which would conform to the rules of ethics as outlined by Markel in Chapter 2. However, the IKEA manual for Besta Norum does not clarify the hazard or how to avoid the hazard properly.

Unclear Information Alerts (Besta Norum 5-6, PDF p. 6-7)

Two alert boxes appear on pages 5 and 6 of the Besta Norum instruction manual (pages 6 and 7 of the PDF). The symbol used for the alert is the lower case letter "i" inside a circle, which may denote "information." However, the picture does not make clear what the added information or alert refers to. The accompanying pictures are too obscure to be of use to anyone. The images do not conform to recommended guidelines for image clarity as outlined by Markel in Chapter 12 of Technical Communication.

Poor Illustrations (Besta Norum 5-8, PDF p. 6-8)

The illustrations on page 5 of the Besta Norum instruction manual (page 6 of the PDF) are terribly unclear, and confuse the reader. The images do not conform to recommended guidelines for image clarity as outlined by Markel in Chapter 12 of Technical Communication. On page 6 of the instruction manual (page 7 of the PDF), the information box also includes a drawing that does not accurately depict the shape of the product or help the user assemble it.

One of the most problematic illustrations in the Besta Norum product manual occurs on page 5 (6 of the PDF). The user can only understand the need for four of the brackets, but the bracket is rendered such that it is impossible to understand exactly how to install it. Dotted lines apparently indicate that which the user cannot see; making this an extremely problematic drawing.

Page 8 is perhaps the most incomprehensible of all. The finished product illustration shows arrows moving in different directions, without any indication of what that means. A bottom illustration shows a screwdriver moving in both directions as well as back and forth.

Recommendations for Redesign:

Overall layout and design are good and fulfill the guidelines recommended by Markel in Chapter 11 of the Technical Communication text. In general, the IKEA manual for the Besta Norum is admirable in that it can appeal to a diverse audience. As Markel points out in Chapter 12 of Technical Communication, graphics can be designed effectively for a multicultural audience when the producer is sensitive to the nuances of cultural cues. The manual instructs the user on furniture assembly without using words or culturally specific symbols, which allows IKEA to produce only one manual for nearly all of its stores. However, if IKEA hopes to rely on pictures only, those pictures must be rendered with absolute clarity so that the consumer can quickly and easily assemble the product.

The following recommendations will help improve the clarity and usefulness of the Besta Norum product manual:

Clarify what Besta Norum is designed to do on the front page. Instead of showing three rectangles that mean nothing to many consumers, the front page must include an illustration of the product's finished use. Is Besta Norum a door? A shelf? A cabinet?