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I recently assembled my first piece of non-IKEA furniture. I think the misconception might stem from the fact that * IKEA instructions for even very simple th

I recently assembled my first piece of non-IKEA furniture. I think the misconception might stem from the fact that * IKEA instructions for even very simple things like shelves are often up to 20 pages long. A lot of steps are very simple, but there are lots of them. * IKEA furniture parts often have many markings on them to make them unique. This is necessary for reuse across products, but also identifiability for above-mentioned instructions. The shelf I recently assembled had none of these "problems". In fact, it only had 2 types of structural metal bars that were identical except for length, and boards to go on top of those bars. The instructions were 2 pages of text. Full paragraphs worth of text. It included sentences like "Connect the vertical corner pieces such that the second-to-last lower peg of the top piece connects to the topmost peg of the lower piece". That one sentence takes around 10 seconds to parse, 30 seconds to visualize and then 1-2 minutes to lay out with the physical pieces in front of you. I would estimate around 80% of that time is waste, compared to just printing those instructions using one IKEA-style diagram.

bonoboTP 7y ago
Also, text may skip some things that the visualization will have to show explicitly. If I'm unsure which screw they really mean here, which orientation I should have that piece in etc., I can just look really closely at the drawing and identify exactly what they mean. See the different layers of depth and how they cover each other to see the exact order of things. See the the exact drill holes or other marks to disambiguate things. Maybe it's just that some people think more in words others more in images and prefer instructions of the corresponding type.
pwinnski 7y ago
The same IKEA instructions are used around the world where English is not the primary language, so it could be argued that benefits IKEA but not users, and that IKES should translate their instructions into dozens of languages. I think your example supports the idea that IKEA is making the right call here. I've always been impressed with how clear each step is, both for me and for people who don't speak English. Or Swedish, really.

bonoboTP 7y ago

Also, text may skip some things that the visualization will have to show explicitly. If I'm unsure which screw they really mean here, which orientation I should have that piece in etc., I can just look really closely at the drawing and identify exactly what they mean. See the different layers of depth and how they cover each other to see the exact order of things. See the the exact drill holes or other marks to disambiguate things. Maybe it's just that some people think more in words others more in images and prefer instructions of the corresponding type.

pwinnski 7y ago

The same IKEA instructions are used around the world where English is not the primary language, so it could be argued that benefits IKEA but not users, and that IKES should translate their instructions into dozens of languages. I think your example supports the idea that IKEA is making the right call here. I've always been impressed with how clear each step is, both for me and for people who don't speak English. Or Swedish, really.