I'm working on creating an infographic on how to use the laser cutter, so that future users can be easily and clearly informed of the process.
After finishing my first iteration of the instructions yesterday, I had my boyfriend Anthony (who had never used a laser cutter before) come in and go through the process using my instructions. I watched him and took note on what seemed confusing to him and what details I was prompted to tell him that were left out from the instructions. This was a very helpful step to make sure that my instructions were both concise enough that important points weren't being skipped, and thorough enough that it was intuitive to a first-time user.
Once I made these touch-ups on the instructions, I met with Jason to talk over important design decisions. Jason has worked largely in industrial design, as well as being a design consultant. Jason taught me a lot of interesting considerations that have to be made when designing something like this.
Context
Details
Cost
Legality
I would really like to continue learning about design and aesthetic in my career as an engineer, so hopefully I'll be able to schedule another meeting with Jason at some point to learn more from him.
After finishing my first iteration of the instructions yesterday, I had my boyfriend Anthony (who had never used a laser cutter before) come in and go through the process using my instructions. I watched him and took note on what seemed confusing to him and what details I was prompted to tell him that were left out from the instructions. This was a very helpful step to make sure that my instructions were both concise enough that important points weren't being skipped, and thorough enough that it was intuitive to a first-time user.
Once I made these touch-ups on the instructions, I met with Jason to talk over important design decisions. Jason has worked largely in industrial design, as well as being a design consultant. Jason taught me a lot of interesting considerations that have to be made when designing something like this.
Context
- How will the user be interacting with your product? (hand-held, virtual, on a wall, etc.)
- How large is your product going to be? (8x11.5" paper, poster, wallet-sized, etc.)
- How far away will the user be reading this from? This is important in deciding the detail you include and the sizes of fonts, graphics, etc.
Details
- Do the colors stand out effectively for their purpose? (important points and warnings are easy to spot)
- Can the user understand the content from each level of the instructions? In other words, could they look through just the section titles, just the pictures, just the captions, etc. and figure out what it's telling them?
- Is the layout easy to follow? Does it have direction?
Cost
- How much will color printing cost on this size print? Would it be more cost-efficient to use only a few colors and gradients of those colors?
- Will the print be made all on one side? On two sides? What is this cost difference?
- How many prints will you be making?
Legality
- Does the sheet say everything it is legally accountable for saying about the safety concerns involved with the product? (This is mainly if you are making instructions to be included with a company's product, and if somebody is in jeopardy of being sued.)
- Do the safety concerns stand out if the user is looking for them? I mentioned this earlier in terms of the color of the warnings, but there should also be a key towards the beginning of the instructions that point out where you can find warnings in the instructions and how they will be labelled.
I would really like to continue learning about design and aesthetic in my career as an engineer, so hopefully I'll be able to schedule another meeting with Jason at some point to learn more from him.