It turns out that most people touch the product without reading the instruction manual
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The Ignobel Prize is a parody of the Nobel Prize for 'Research that makes people laugh and think'. A research paper that won the Ignobel Prize for Literature in 2018 was ' The discovery that many people don't read instruction manuals when using complex products .'
Life Is Too Short to RTFM: How Users Relate to Documentation and Excess Features in Consumer Products | Interacting with Computers | Oxford Academic
https://academic.oup.com/iwc/article/28/1/27/2363584
In English-speaking countries, the phrase “ RTFM ” is used as an answer to questions that can be understood by reading the manual. There are various theories about what kind of words are abbreviations, and it is said that it comes from `` read the field manual (see the field manual) '' `` read the f ** king manual (read also in the manual) '', etc. Also recommends reading the manual uniformly. However, an investigation by the Queensland Institute of Technology research team found that the manual was rarely read and that many features were wasted.
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The research team of Prof. Aretha Blackler of Queensland University of Technology conducted a survey on a total of 170 subjects who took a questionnaire on “Product and Functional Proficiency” over the seven years from 2001 to 2007. did. A variety of 18 products were selected, including home appliances such as microwave ovens, ovens, and dishwashers, electronic devices such as PCs, digital cameras, and mobile phones, and software such as browsers and operating systems. In addition, the questionnaire items for proficiency are 5 levels: 'Read the manual completely and master it perfectly', 'Mastered to the extent that you can understand without a manual', 'Can be used to some extent', 'Can be used but quite limited', 'Not usable at all' .
When the questionnaire results were tabulated, it was found that less than 25% of the total mastered product functions by carefully reading the manual. It has also been found that the higher the educational background, the less likely it is to read the manual. In particular, those who graduated from graduate school did not read the manuals overwhelmingly than any other academic background.
The research team speculates that the reason why highly educated people do not read the manual is that they are confident that they can use it without a manual. Also, “People with a high level of education may have selected only necessary functions.” In addition, we found that “man read manuals better than women” and “younger people read manuals less”.
by Paul Downey
Next, when we focused on the product and analyzed it, it turned out that the more complex the product, such as the PC, PC software, and AV products, the more difficult the manual could be read. Furthermore, even within the same category of kitchen appliances, kitchen appliances with complex functions have less manuals than simple ones, and the level of proficiency of functions is low. In a sense, it is a natural result, but the research team is seriously considering, 'It is suggested that complex kitchen appliances have more functions than simple ones.' It was.
Prof. Blackler concludes, 'The results of this study indicate that our lives are too short to be called RTFM (read the manual)' It was recommended to create an easy manual.
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