User Manual

This artist’s book, User Manual, simulates my experience of reading instructional booklets that come with almost any gadget. Typically full of dense lines of text, they do not make the most pleasant reading material, especially when filled with technical jargon. Even though manufacturers seem to be simplifying these user manuals over the years (the most extreme example of which is Ikea’s text-less image-based assembly instructions), I rarely ever read them in full detail. Perhaps, some might argue that if the product is truly well designed, then it would be intuitive enough to operate without the manual. However, this does not make manuals completely obsolete, as they often contain important safety information and troubleshooting solutions. 

User Manual directly references formal elements and text from these manuals. It features a “welcome” page and a page of contents, allowing readers to navigate to specific sections of the manual. Its main text was sourced from the manuals of 3 specific products: a Ford 2019 Ranger, Nokia N-Gage QD (a handheld game console and smartphone released in 2004), and Virtua Cop 2 (a light gun shooter arcade game released by SEGA in 1995). Sections of these manuals are spliced and mixed, separated into sections—Warnings, Device settings, How to play, Care Information, and Troubleshooting—describing a seemingly familiar-yet-unknown device. Using charNG, a character n-gram generator, the externally sourced text is algorithmically reimagined as machine-generated poetry. 

This book (or rather, game) combines the concept of a manual with the user interface of a machine it might be written for. Inspired by the primitive yet functional design of early computer programs and games, it is a nostalgic reminder of how far technology has progressed in just a short few decades. I have also designed it to emulate the flaws that come with such technology, with program clashes and glitched navigation included as part of this encounter. Amidst the chaos, a waving robot sprite speaks directly to the reader, in an imitation of the digital assistants of the 2000s. Some of us might remember Clippy or BonziBuddy fondly, as friendly faces that guided new users through the unfamiliar landscape of the computer screen. However, the digital assistants of the present-day—notably Siri, Cortana, and Alexa—no longer have a visual form attached to their voices. Over time, it seems that the more user-friendly these devices have become, the less human they seem to appear. With that in mind, User Manual transports readers back in time to one of many beginnings: the acquisition of a new device.