#4
Evolution of manuals: UX inspiration from history
We can safely say that since there was writing, there was also some kind of instructions. With all the hard work that goes into creating something, a manual is still there to help if needed. And since we can consider any teaching material as a manual, there wasn’t much difference between a manual and any instructions, since tools weren’t as advanced to have separate manuals for them. We can say they follow humans and our history. Let’s look at some instructions, and learn more about learning, older writing, and how we ended up with the eloquent manuals we have now.
ANCIENT WORLD
Mesopotamia
Kish tablet is considered the oldest written document. I couldn’t find the translation information but it’s said that it was written in proto-cuneiform. Proto-cuneiform was the first form of writing and was used in Mesopotamia around 3200 BC. It is generally agreed that proto-cuneiform was developed from earlier pictographic symbols and was used to record economic transactions. Around 2600 BC, the first alphabetical symbols began to appear in proto-cuneiform texts. Since proto-cuneiform uses symbols it’s safe to assume if there were instructions written in it it would have some imagery to the instruction.
In the image below we can see the clay tablet from 1 400BC-1 200BC, with instructions on how to make red glass. The British Museum described the writing style of this manual as
Written in a slightly obscure style so as to be understood only by skilled craftsmen.
Reviewing several samples of Mesopotamian clay tablets I couldn’t see any images used, except for the usage of seals. The seals, however, were used as a signature, doesn’t seem like there was the intention to use it as an image. The reason for that is the cost of such seals to be made, since making a seal would require hiring a skillful artist.
China
Bamboo slips were commonly used for writing in ancient China, with the earliest surviving examples dating back to the 5th century BC.
To look at how instructions were provided in such a medium, we can look at this decimal multiplication table (Warring States period c. 475–221 BC). This table was found among the Tsinghua Bamboo Slips. Here, ink dots separate a multiplier and a multiplicand (at the top and at the right) from the product. And while it’s hard to see without the numeric system that we are used to, it looks almost exactly like the multiplication table that we use now. The only differences are that it has more numbers and 1/2 as the starting point. It shows a sample of a rather old but quite user-friendly approach in instructions, that is clearly working, considering we still use the same layout.
Also, the first signs of specifying a genre of writing appeared during the third century BCE to the third century CE in China. This is an improvement in the readability and organization of the text.
Overall since bamboo slips were more flexible, some included drawings and more complex layouts. So instructions in theory could have been more user-friendly.
Egypt
Egypt had a genre called “Sebayt” which meant instruction or teaching. Many of the earliest Sebayt claim to have been written in the third millennium BCE. Usually, they would be built like ‘‘the instruction which X made for Y.’’ And were more about religious or moral teachings.
However, highly researched the Book of the dead can be seen more like a manual. The Book of the dead is considered to be a guidebook to afterlife realms. Here we may see much more details, pictures, and formatting for better reading. For example, the beginning and end of “spells” in the Book of the Dead were written in red in order to highlight the transitions between spells or for other highlights. Since ancient Egypt was always using art as storytelling it is not surprising to see it in their instructions.
Modern World
Going closer to us in time there is no clear definition of “manual” as a genre of books till approximately 16th century. But before that a lot of instructional or teaching material could be found. Showing diversity in writing style, layouts and usage of images to improve usability and remembering the material.
Following the teaching of art of memory, that states that usage of powerful imagery helps memorizing, Johann Host von Romberch uses a lot of illustrations in his books like this visual alphabet.
I would say Illuminations(in religious text) as a starting point, the art of memory that just highlighted how good people are at remembering when images are involved, and further inventions in printing just solidify for people usage of images in books that provide instructions.
The first textbook for children, Orbis Pictus, shows yet another step forward in written instructions. The book was written by Czech educator John Amos Comenius and published in 1658. We can see that all the progress in writing and understanding comprehension started to improve instructions. The book contained pictures, and the words were printed in larger print. Each picture is accompanied by a simple sentence. This format is still used today as a way to teach children to read.
19th century manuals
Looking at the 19th century, we’ll see manuals like “A Complete Manual of the Edison Phonograph” by George E. Tewksbury, that at first glance look just like any manual today, but is very different from what we are used to. That’s where we can go into a bit more detail.
For one thing, the manual had a preface and an introduction which would be surprising to see in a modern manual. Similarly to current manuals, Tewksbury’s manual had pictures of the device with numbers, to explain parts of the device. But such pictures were done for multiple parts of the phonograph, even for parts like the motor and governor, since those parts might require some care from the user. While describing any usage, after mentioning numbers once they get ditched for the name of the part which might get hard to understand and require searching through the text to find the number so then the user could look at the picture.
To help users find the information they need, the book had short text written on the sides, usually describing the content of the part.
Overall as we are used to straight-to-the-point manuals, the manual of the Edison phonograph had in some parts a promotional feel to it and carried a lot of thoughts from the author.
I would say that manuals had to go through transition, and change in a way that will be easy for a regular person to use. While early versions of manuals seem to follow the handbook approach, they intend to teach how to use the device as a subject that a person needs to learn. It’s not surprising since the term “manuals” was also used in books about chemistry and other subjects.
20th century manuals
The 20th century’s manuals brought standardization. Manuals became logical, straight to the point, and fairly simple compared to the previous options. There’s not much to say, since manuals were very similar to what we have now. But if the reader is interested in interaction and prior technology, manuals will play a great role in researching that.
Current Manuals
Current manuals strive to be as simple as possible, with as little information as possible. Now we have help centers, they can provide troubleshooting and more information if necessary.
Current manuals are not limited to just books or paper. Onboarding manuals for web applications show you directly how to use it on the interface you try to use. With images and animations, there is no limit when you work in a digital space.
Adding to that AR technology allows the creation of learning materials that are more immersive. With the help of augmented reality, instructions can be brought to life, allowing a user to see and interact with three-dimensional images of things that they are studying in real life.
Conclusion
Looking at manuals it’s safe to say they followed the world and followed the evolution of human knowledge. From the hardest instructions like the ones that were written in proto-cuneiform, to the easiest, like current web onboarding instructions. But all those manuals followed the same purpose: to help people learn about some subject, to help them understand and use something. Old manuals can teach us about the people who wrote them. While not everybody wrote them, manuals usually show some specific point of view on something. Showing how other people who used to use something felt about it. It helps us to understand what they could find hard and how they felt about it. When we want to learn more about the experiences of people throughout history, it is safe to say we need to look more into instructions written by them. As we can see instructions, as we know them, were built on the legacy of instructions before it, showing how human progress impacted how instructions were written. How simple texts in hieroglyphics looked so complex to us, and how the usage of images throughout the whole history helped improve the quality of the manuals. While we mostly reviewed layout-related parts of manuals and their history, it’s not all that manuals can teach us. There is still so much more to learn here, but we will stop this story here for now.
This is Story #1 out of 3 from the short book I wrote that is available HERE for FREE.
Sources
- They wrote on clay: the Babylonian tablets speak today by Chiera, Edward, 1885–1933
- RESEARCH ARTICLE. From under the elbow to pointing to the palm: Chinese metaphors for learning medicine by the book (fourth–fourteenth centuries) by Marta Hanson
- Learning by the book: manuals and handbooks in the history of science Angela N.H. Creager, Mathias Grote and Elaine Leong
- The literature of ancient Egypt by Robert K. Ritner and William Kelly Simpson
- Book of the Dead Becoming God in ancient Egypt by Oriental Institute Museum
- A Complete Manual of the Edison Phonograph by George E. Tewksbury
- The Art of Memory by Frances Yates
- Google Arts & Culture
