As a producer of how-tos or instructions, your goal is to create instructional content to inspire and help an audience that wants to do or achieve something. Whether you are creating a tutorial on how to achieve a flawless makeup look or build a piece of furniture, your primary goal is to create content that is easy to follow and yields successful results. We are writing a series of blog posts to investigate what makes different how-to content types useful or not. Enabling you to determine which one is best suited for you and your audience’s needs. In this post, we will begin with text-based how-tos.
Using writing to communicate how-tos or instructions is, of course, the most simple and direct way to do the job. It also is helpful because, if explained correctly, the content is easy to comprehend and can be shared in various formats. However, it is worth noting that occasionally they can be too simple and not suitable for every individual’s learning style.
Advantages
Producer
- Easy To Create: Written how-tos are relatively simple to create as they only require a tool to write with.
- Detailed Descriptions: Writing allows you to provide detailed descriptions of each step and necessary materials, which can be helpful for more complex tasks.
User
- Selectable Pace: Readers are given the flexibility of taking their time or moving quickly through the steps, depending on their needs.
- Saveable: Users can save a written how-to for later by downloading it to their device or printing it out.
Disadvantages
Producer
- Writing Skills: To ensure that the instructions are clear, concise and easy to understand, the writer must have great writing skills. ChatGPT can be useful to generate ideas and motivate you, but remember the output is an average based upon a massive data set. It does not and can not know the details about your specific how-to.
- Misinterpretation: As a writer, you automatically have to make an assumption about your audience’s general knowledge and literacy. It will not be possible to cover every level of expertise when forming instructions; thus, misinterpretations can occur.
User
- Language Barrier: In order to make your how-to content accessible to people speaking different languages, you (or them) must translate the content. With that comes a risk of misinterpretation and extra work for the producer/user.
- Regression: A common drawback for all text-based material is regression, meaning unnecessary re-reading of material which extends the time of following a how-to. Users might have to go back in the text to check if they read everything correctly.
Examples
How To Make Broccoli & Walnut Rigatoni
How To Prepare For A Tsunami
