It’s just over a year since we completed project flat and today we went to Ikea, again. As always you end up with quite a few things when you leave the yellow and blue store, but today it was planned.
The list of what to get was fairly long, or rather it contained a lot of big bulky things. Like a new desk and chair for the office and a couple of chest of drawers to create some more storage space. We ended up with two trolleys worth of big flat pack packs and one trolley full of other things, all of course things that we definitely needed.
Though I do enjoy going to Ikea putting together furniture after the first one is done, despite it being quite soothing, it’s not my favourite. However, each time I’m amazed by how (relatively) simple it is and how cleverly everything is designed. From the furniture to how it’s packaged to all of the work that’s gone into making those instructions clear and meaningful to all the locations where Ikea exist.
Relying on text and translations would mean a massive cost and it’s fascinating to think about all the detail and effort that go into making the instructions work for everyone using just imagery and numbers. Using the same style and principles Ikea have managed to teach us how to over and over build their furniture and that e.g. the close up of a picture in a speech bubble style call out means there is a particular detail that we need to pay attention to. It’s pedagogical and takes you through each of the steps for each of the furnitures and items that they sell. Not a small task by any means.
We all know the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words and Ikea’s manuals are a good reminder of how little we often need to say. There are other ways than long winded paragraphs to explain what you need to say. The benefit of including nice imagery or paying extra attention to your typography treatment is that you’re likely to grab more of your customer’s attention and get your message across. And though consistency for consistency’s sake isn’t necessarily useful, the example of Ikea’s strong manual branding and consistency in explaining how to build their furniture means that us as users are more likely to recognise that it is Ikea but also that we are more likely to succeed with the task we want to carry out.
Tomorrow – Day 260 | Week 37 summary
Image source: www.flickr.com/photos/telstar/7190299024
