This is a bad idea. I assume they do this so they can also sell in Quebec, Puerto Rico, Mexico and maybe Europe.
I wonder how much money they save by leaving out all text.
Do they at least include numbers, i.e. the order to install the parts?
yes they have part numbers
Sometimes they don’t even have steps; just an exploded diagram shrunk down to an unreadable size.
I see this a lot, with the instructions given only in drawings and sometimes I think that a few words would help.
I recently assembled a product that came with a QR code that took me right to the instructions I needed. Worked fine.
What I’m seeing a lot of is a set of instructions for various models, so after every step it says “(depending on model)”. What this means is that the specific model I have may not even have the part in question.
It’s not that big of a deal if you’re manly enough to assemble things without instructions.
Well designed instructions don’t need text. A few examples of good textless assembly instructions are Lego instructions, which can easily be followed by pre-literate children, or Ikea instructions.
Badly designed instructions can be inscrutable even without text. Honestly, I’d rather have clear pictures than the… entertainingly translated English text that comes with many things these days.
A lot of times you are really better off just trying to assemble the product without reading the instructions.
I bought a barbeque with instructions in English but wherever the product was made clearly did not understand English because the various parts all had the warning/instruction labels put on the parts upside down. I had to quit looking at the instructions and then it all came together.
Bought a Lukas dash camera for my car, excellent product, great pictures, completely happy with it, after I figured it out that is. Made in South Korea and I am reasonably sure that there are many fluent English speakers there, well, they didn’t hire one to write the instructions. The written instructions were so bad that for a moment they seemed to be an intentional parody, hilariously bad. I learned how to use the product the old fashioned way of “what does this button do? Oh I see the options now, what does this do?”
You would think that if you designed a product that you might give it and the instructions to someone and watch them try to put it together or operate it, and see what problems that they run into. Apparently that is way too forward thinking to make it into actual practice. I am convinced that some of the instruction manuals are written by people who have never actually even seen the thing.
From a localized product offering, it’s a great idea. It’s saves considerable money in creating and reviewing translations, as well as inventory and logistics work to make sure the right documentation goes with the product. You don’t have inventories for each particular product language variant, reducing overhead as well.
Reminds me of this Dave Barry column I LOL’ed at years ago, and managed to find on the interwebs:
https://www.repairfaq.org/ELE/F_Humor.html#HUMOR_004 (More to the point, step 3.)
Yes! From the Dave Barry column.
INSTRUCTIONS : For results that can be the finest, it is our advising that: NEVER to hold these buttons two times!! Except the battery. Next Taking the (something) earth section may cause a large occurrence! However. If this is not a trouble, such rotation is a very maintainence action, as a kindly (something) viewpoint from Drawing B.
That was what the Lukas dash camera instructions were like.
Obviously I meant “with text” here, but I’m past the edit window. Apologies for the confusing text, next time I’ll try to stick to clearly drawn diagrams.
I bought a desk from Ikea a few weeks ago and had no trouble and except for the care instructions (Wipe occasionally with a damp cloth.) o 30+ languages there were no words at all.
The only thing that I couldn’t interpret was on the lead page. It showed the tools needed (hammer and #2 phillips screwdriver), that you should assemble it on a carpet instead of a hard floor, to call Ikea if something makes no sense to you, and a fourth picture I couldn’t figure out.
It showed a guy standing over a pile of planks with a hammer in his hand frowning and a question mark over his head, and the same guy smiling over the same pile of planks and on the other side another guy with nothing in his hands and a pencil stuck behind his ear.
DesertRoomie looked at it a moment and said, “It’s saying you’re going to need help.” Sure enough, after the base was assembled, the pegs and other hardware were to be stuck into the top, two guys were needed to lower the inverted base onto the underside of the top. When the time came I told DR, “It’s time. Go stick a pencil behind your ear and come here.”
This is a Weber natural gas grill so it’s not cheap but some of the pictures don’t make any sense at all to me. There are a few just for NG grill but I have not gotten to those yet.
I had no problems with my Weber two years ago, so I don’t think it’s universal. I thought the instructions were pretty straightforward, but our models could be very different.
I recently gutted and remodeled a basement (I’m writing like it is done…AS IF!). The shower mixing valve and shower head assembly both came with these sorts of instructions. The shower head wasn’t too bad but that mixing valve took some serious study. When you are doing rough-in plumbing and you need to make sure you get depth correct, don’t melt things when you solder, etc, you have to get it right. Not happy with those instructions. I’m guessing to folks that do this all the time, it doesn’t matter, but to the homeowner that has some skills…yikes! Btw, the linked instructions are better because they are color vs the B/W I worked off of.
Yeah, that’s ridiculous.
If that’s all it came with, then this is an even worse practice than the one described in the OP.