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I have found the same thing with my wife. I'm a technical person, but I'm extremely bad with tools and such, including the ticket thing. If no one shows me how

I have found the same thing with my wife. I'm a technical person, but I'm extremely bad with tools and such, including the ticket thing. If no one shows me how to use it I'll probably figure out a way to insert it somewhere. My wife won't have any problem with this and other small tools. The same thing with IKEA: I always rely on the manual and just blindly follow the instructions, and gets very frustrated if the instructions miss one step.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
II2II 2y ago
> The same thing with IKEA: I always rely on the manual and just blindly follow the instructions, and gets very frustrated if the instructions miss one step. Following instructions is a good thing. Plenty of people damage stuff when putting it together since it looks obvious, but they usually miss critical details. I would imagine that the people who designed the card scanners had to put a lot of thought into their design simply because they know many people won't read instructions and would do as you suggest: figure out a way to insert [the card] somewhere.
- markus_zhang 2y ago
  Yeah...but apparently she is more handy than me. I always joked she should work as an engineer of some sort.
- bluGill 2y ago
  For things like IKEA furniture there often is a good engineering reason to do things in a specific order that is not obvious. For furniture this is okay - nobody does it often (or if you do it is a few things that you memorize the instructions for). Transit has different considerations though. It is critical that doing the right thing is obvious without reading instructions. Someone might have an important meeting to make and the time to read the instructions (or wait for the person in from of them to read the instructions) means they are late. Or (worse?!?) that time spent in line is annoying enough that someone decides to buy a car. You can somewhat get around this with more fare machines - but they are expensive and take up a lot of space. Fortunately we have human-machine interaction specialists who can tell you how to make a fare machine that is easy to use correctly without needing any instructions.
TeMPOraL 2y ago
> The same thing with IKEA: I always rely on the manual and just blindly follow the instructions, and gets very frustrated if the instructions miss one step. Thing I figured out assembling IKEA stuff in the past few years: if it seems like they skipped a step, look carefully at the details in pictures. Perhaps use a magnifying glass. There's going to be only one way to get from step N to step N+1, and all the information to figure it out is there. The drawings of all the pieces, from major parts to tiniest of screws, have accurate details, and there's enough of them to disambiguate the situation.
- girvo 2y ago
  You really do need a magnifying glass for some of those details, as the (asymmetrical) holes that ID which way some part must go become dots at the scale they print some of the manuals. You're absolutely right though: all the info is there, just got to work it out
- windex 2y ago
  Ikea also doesn't use Philips screws. They have pozidriv screws and need pozidriv bits if you dont want to strip the screw heads. I learned the hard way.
  - voidUpdate 2y ago
    I've never had an issue using my normal Phillips head screwdrivers with Ikea stuff
lukan 2y ago
"I always rely on the manual and just blindly follow the instructions, and gets very frustrated if the instructions miss one step" But why do people make incomplete manuals? If I have a step by step guidance and it doesn't work, because some steps were left out, than this is just a wrong manual! (I share your frustration)
- gumby 2y ago
  Typically this means they stepped the design and didn't bother to revise the doc, or used up the stock of manuals for the old version before starting on the new ones.
- crote 2y ago
  Because most companies view the manual as an afterthought. You've already bought it. What are you going to do if the manual is bad, return it? And even then, you're returning it to a third-party store - the manufacturer isn't going to care care. You bought an ShelfExpress for 50% off at Furniture Mart, can you really expect them to care? Ikea, on the other hand, prides itself on user experience. Everything is Ikea-branded, so any complaint will come back to Ikea because the buck stops there. Everything is sold internationally, and they don't want to translate it into a dozen languages, so they have to make clear assembly diagrams. Their entire brand is built around having great assembly instructions!
- markus_zhang 2y ago
  Some instruction booklets are completely BS. I recently tried out a Coleman 8-people tent and the booklet is just a 4-picture page. The official setup video on YouTube is less than 2 minutes... I mean, it's completely useless for people who has zero experience with camping -- exactly the people who need those instructions and videos and exactly the people who buy these types of tents from Costco.
vundercind 2y ago
I’ve never seen them skip a step. Basically all other flat pack furniture I’ve ever bought has, but none of the dozen or so ikea items I’ve assembled. It’s part of why I only buy flat pack if it’s ikea, now.
- jeffparsons 2y ago
  I recently assembled two non-IKEA flat-packed items from two different vendors. One left out details in the diagrams in each step that they had deemed irrelevant to that step. This apparent attempt at simplifying the instructions stumped me for ages because I kept thinking I'd oriented pieces wrong due to the number of holes in the picture differing from the number of holes in the physical thing. The other had switched some parts since the instructions were made, and hadn't bothered to update the instructions. This was a bit more obvious, but still kinda irritating for someone like me who is uncomfortable with uncertainty when I believe certainty should be attainable. Whatever else can be said of IKEA, their manuals and quality control are excellent. I think of them as the McDonald's of furniture — it's never the best product, but it's damn good for the price, and you know exactly what you're going to get.
  - microtonal 2y ago
    Also, their more expensive furniture can be of a pretty good quality (e.g. Idåsen for office furniture).

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

II2II 2y ago

> The same thing with IKEA: I always rely on the manual and just blindly follow the instructions, and gets very frustrated if the instructions miss one step. Following instructions is a good thing. Plenty of people damage stuff when putting it together since it looks obvious, but they usually miss critical details. I would imagine that the people who designed the card scanners had to put a lot of thought into their design simply because they know many people won't read instructions and would do as you suggest: figure out a way to insert [the card] somewhere.

markus_zhang 2y ago
Yeah...but apparently she is more handy than me. I always joked she should work as an engineer of some sort.
bluGill 2y ago
For things like IKEA furniture there often is a good engineering reason to do things in a specific order that is not obvious. For furniture this is okay - nobody does it often (or if you do it is a few things that you memorize the instructions for). Transit has different considerations though. It is critical that doing the right thing is obvious without reading instructions. Someone might have an important meeting to make and the time to read the instructions (or wait for the person in from of them to read the instructions) means they are late. Or (worse?!?) that time spent in line is annoying enough that someone decides to buy a car. You can somewhat get around this with more fare machines - but they are expensive and take up a lot of space. Fortunately we have human-machine interaction specialists who can tell you how to make a fare machine that is easy to use correctly without needing any instructions.

TeMPOraL 2y ago

> The same thing with IKEA: I always rely on the manual and just blindly follow the instructions, and gets very frustrated if the instructions miss one step. Thing I figured out assembling IKEA stuff in the past few years: if it seems like they skipped a step, look carefully at the details in pictures. Perhaps use a magnifying glass. There's going to be only one way to get from step N to step N+1, and all the information to figure it out is there. The drawings of all the pieces, from major parts to tiniest of screws, have accurate details, and there's enough of them to disambiguate the situation.

girvo 2y ago
You really do need a magnifying glass for some of those details, as the (asymmetrical) holes that ID which way some part must go become dots at the scale they print some of the manuals. You're absolutely right though: all the info is there, just got to work it out
windex 2y ago
Ikea also doesn't use Philips screws. They have pozidriv screws and need pozidriv bits if you dont want to strip the screw heads. I learned the hard way.
- voidUpdate 2y ago
  I've never had an issue using my normal Phillips head screwdrivers with Ikea stuff

lukan 2y ago

"I always rely on the manual and just blindly follow the instructions, and gets very frustrated if the instructions miss one step" But why do people make incomplete manuals? If I have a step by step guidance and it doesn't work, because some steps were left out, than this is just a wrong manual! (I share your frustration)

gumby 2y ago
Typically this means they stepped the design and didn't bother to revise the doc, or used up the stock of manuals for the old version before starting on the new ones.
crote 2y ago
Because most companies view the manual as an afterthought. You've already bought it. What are you going to do if the manual is bad, return it? And even then, you're returning it to a third-party store - the manufacturer isn't going to care care. You bought an ShelfExpress for 50% off at Furniture Mart, can you really expect them to care? Ikea, on the other hand, prides itself on user experience. Everything is Ikea-branded, so any complaint will come back to Ikea because the buck stops there. Everything is sold internationally, and they don't want to translate it into a dozen languages, so they have to make clear assembly diagrams. Their entire brand is built around having great assembly instructions!
markus_zhang 2y ago
Some instruction booklets are completely BS. I recently tried out a Coleman 8-people tent and the booklet is just a 4-picture page. The official setup video on YouTube is less than 2 minutes... I mean, it's completely useless for people who has zero experience with camping -- exactly the people who need those instructions and videos and exactly the people who buy these types of tents from Costco.

vundercind 2y ago

I’ve never seen them skip a step. Basically all other flat pack furniture I’ve ever bought has, but none of the dozen or so ikea items I’ve assembled. It’s part of why I only buy flat pack if it’s ikea, now.

jeffparsons 2y ago
I recently assembled two non-IKEA flat-packed items from two different vendors. One left out details in the diagrams in each step that they had deemed irrelevant to that step. This apparent attempt at simplifying the instructions stumped me for ages because I kept thinking I'd oriented pieces wrong due to the number of holes in the picture differing from the number of holes in the physical thing. The other had switched some parts since the instructions were made, and hadn't bothered to update the instructions. This was a bit more obvious, but still kinda irritating for someone like me who is uncomfortable with uncertainty when I believe certainty should be attainable. Whatever else can be said of IKEA, their manuals and quality control are excellent. I think of them as the McDonald's of furniture — it's never the best product, but it's damn good for the price, and you know exactly what you're going to get.
- microtonal 2y ago
  Also, their more expensive furniture can be of a pretty good quality (e.g. Idåsen for office furniture).