Your Writing Dept Blog Creating quality user documentation and putting the “M” in RTFM.

Is there an error message for user manual failure?

I hate my oven. No wait, I hate the Use & Care Guide that came with the oven. I use the oven, a KitchenAid Model KEMC378, quite a bit and it has occasionally shut down and spit out an error message on the front panel. This forces me to dig the manual out of the draw where we keep Chinese restaurant takeout menus, note pads and operator manuals for the large appliances in the kitchen that usually keep our lives moving smoothly.

Well, this is what happened last week. I’m finished baking a wonderful dinner, and as I’m shutting the oven off, the panel flashes an image I’ve never seen…the probe temperature sensor. Hey don’t get me wrong, I’m sure a temperature sensor has its place, but I’m pretty basic when it comes to cooking. My rule is that you set the temperature, put the food item in for about the prescribed time and take it out just before you smell smoke.

So, back to the panel issue. After the probe image stops flashing at me, an error message appears and everything else goes blank. And no amount of  button pressing, kicking and swearing seems to help.

So out comes the manual. I thumb to the back, because from past experience, I know that’s where I will find the troubleshooting section. But wait, there isn’t an all-inclusive error code list. There’s only a reference to a code that will appear if a power failure has occurred. So, it’s off to the Internet to find the code. This is where things appeared to be getting much better for me. I found several long lists of codes that I printed off and stapled to the inside of the manual for future reference, but here’s the rub, the elusive F4 E0 was not listed. What? They had four-digit codes and two-digit codes listed, but my four-digit code wasn’t listed. Oh, what to do? So I called the KitchenAid Customer Interaction Center. Of course, I didn’t really think they were going to be able to help me, but at this point, I just wanted talk with someone.

After getting someone on the line and describing the problem, all the operator could do was repeatedly ask if I had the extended service plan, because if I did, they could have a service technician out in a couple of days to look at it…without charge. Otherwise, I would have to call another company to come out, and they would charge me. Interestingly, she didn’t want to take no for an answer and couldn’t understand why I didn’t have the extended service plan. No, I insisted because number one, I’m cheap, and number two, I thought I was buying a product that might not break.

So after the call didn’t get me what I wanted, I decided to return to the code list and see if I could break down the basic elements of the codes and take matters into my own hands. Since this four-digit code could be broken down as two, separate two-digit codes, relating to electrical shorts in sensors, I thought I could add the flashing image of the temperature probe into the mix and point myself to the problem.

My thought was that something must have gotten into the opening (temperature probe jack) for the sensor probe, which is open and exposed to the heat and smoke produced in the oven. So I shut off the electrical breaker that leads to the oven and gently poked the tip of an ice pick into the opening and twirled it around a bit. And after turning the power back on, I was very pleased to see that the error code was gone and the oven was operating normally.

So here’s what I learned about developing manuals from this little experience:

• Include every possible error message
• Provide every possible solution to the error messages so the user can either attempt a fix themselves or make a service call
• Be honest about whether the user may be able to fix the problem. If they may be able to jiggle this or jiggle that to fix the problem, feel free to mention it.
• By not providing all possible error messages, you are doing your readers a disservice and might be forcing them to call customer service, who might also be less than helpful
• When developing a product, let your writers have hands-on time with the product to verify how the user will see the product and the manuals together. Don’t just make them rely on engineering notes.

After all this, I still like my oven, but I now have a better appreciation for the need to list error messages and associated solutions to make manuals more useful. And now, would anyone care for some warm blueberries muffins?

Your Writing Dept is a Sacramento-based writing firm that specializes in developing technical manuals and user guides. We like to say that we can be your tech writing team, without the overhead. Email us for more information about our services at info@yourwritingdept.com.

Additional Posts from Your Writing Dept

• InfoPorn: Presenting raw data with visually stimulating graphs
• Twitter: Is it killing good grammar?
• How many spaces after a period? One or two?
• Newspapers are dying but there’s still a need for good journalism
• Tips for hiring an outsourced technical writing team to document your product or process
• Is there an error message for user manual failure?
• MS Office 2007 Hidden Treasure