How do you tell a story without words? With pictures.
I purchased a rolling file cabinet from Ikea this week and was impressed with the simple set of instructions that came with it. I’m the type of person who actually reads instructions that come with purchased items. I have tried to assemble similar items before with written instructions. More often than not, I end up confused and frustrated. However, this one was different. The pictures told me everything I needed to know and I assembled it successfully. I also appreciated not having to flip through pages in a booklet to find the text written in English. Since no words are involved (only numbers), the language was not applicable.
As graphical interface designers, we can learn from this example. When it comes to computer interfaces, users don’t read. Rather, they rely on the interface to “speak” to them to tell them what to do. The lesson l learned from this is that simplicity rules.
