Magister Artium - MA / Technical documentation comes in a variety of forms such as installation or operation manuals, quick reference guides, maintenance manuals, user manuals, policy and procedure manuals or marketing brochures and flyers (Walsh, 2012). What all these sub-genres have in common is that the texts that correspond to them seek to inform and give instruction about procedures, behaviour and actions related to products (Schäffner & Wiesemann, 2001: 49). Manuals have been described as “the complete reference source for a product’s operation, maintenance and safety” (Cowley & Wogalter, 2011: 1773). For the purpose of this study, we will focus on one form of technical documentation, namely user manuals. The terms “documentation” and “manuals” will be used interchangeably. Although there are probably as many manuals as there are products in our homes, these user manuals have not frequently been the subject of academic study in the South African context. The relative lack of research into user manuals is especially regrettable at a time when new product liability legislation and trade regulations (e.g. the Consumer Protect Act of South Africa, 2008) have enhanced the profile of product manuals in public and regulatory discourse. As a result of this relative neglect, it is not known how understandable, relevant and therefore empowering users of products find these manuals. There is also not much knowledge concerning the level of compliance in manuals to the provisions of product liability legislation. This study therefore proposes to investigate the comprehensibility and usability of user manuals associated with two products (blenders) marketed in South Africa. It will draw on theories and methods of analysis associated with technical writing, analysis of terminological consistency, genre and multimodality, to evaluate the selected manuals from the standpoint of a subset of the criteria listed in Section 22(2) of the Consumer Protection Act of South Africa, No. 68 of 2008, which was later amended in 2011. The methodology for the proposed study will combine text analysis (by the researcher) with comprehension and usability tasks performed by selected participants. Data from these sources will be collated and analysed to determine the conformity of the manuals to criteria in the Consumer Protection Act of South Africa, and the effect the manuals have on product users. Areas for optimising (improving) the manuals will also be identified.

Unlike consumer technologies and electronics that have advanced and become more affordable and intuitive to use, the supplied user manuals are still using the old-fashioned book-like design. There are people who do not read the manuals, even when they are in trouble, because these book-like manuals might be too complicated or difficult to understand. There are also people who are unable to use the manuals because of reading disabilities or illiteracy. These problems can be solved with an universal design for manuals (UDM) on digital platforms. Universal design is a design approach with the goal to provide the same accessibility and usability to all people. However, there was no such published design on the market.The purpose of this research was to investigate requirements for the UDM, and create a model of it. The goal was to propose a model of UDM (MUDM) that describes how a manual can be designed on digital platforms, that is universally accessible and usable.The research method was qualitative with exploratory nature. By studying the relevant literature, scientific papers and existing manuals with high level of usability, a list of the requirements for UDM was compiled and analyzed. Based on the findings from the studies, a model of UDM was created which describes an implementation of the manual as a mobile application on smartphones.The model consists of two diagrams, a flow-chart diagram which describes the navigation and the structure of the application, and a package diagram which covers interaction methods, layouts, components, and information presentation methods. The model covers all the found requirements for UDM, which implies that the model includes methods to achieve all these requirements. / Till skillnad från ständigt utvecklande konsumentteknik och konsumentelektronik som har blivit billigare och mer intuitiva att använda, de medföljande manualerna använder fortfarande den gamla bokliknande design. Det finns människor som inte läser manual när de har funderingar eller frågor, eftersom manualen kanske är för komplicerad eller svårbegriplig. Det finns också människor som inte kan använda manualen, på grund av lässvårigheter eller analfabetism. Sådana problem kan lösas med en universell design för manual (UDM) på digitala plattformer. Universell design är en design strategi som syftar på att göra produkten lika tillgänglig och användbar för alla. Dock fanns det ingen sådan design på marknaden.Denna forskning syftade på att undersöka vad det är som krävs för UDM och sedan utveckla en model för det. Målet var att förslå en model för UDM (MUDM) som beskriver hur manual kan designas på digitala plattformer, för att uppnå universell tillgänglighet och användbarhet.Forskningsmetoden var kvalitativ och utforskande. Genom att studera relevanta litteratur, forskningsrapporter och existerande manualer med hög nivå av användbarhet, en lista med kraven för UDM skapades och analyserades. Därefter skapades en model av UDM baserat på upptäckterna från studierna.Modellen beskriver en implementering av manual som mobilapplikation på smartphones. Modellen består av två diagram, ett flödesdiagram och ett paketdiagram. Diagrammen omfattar interaktionsmetoder, layouter, komponenter, navigeringen och metoder för informationspresentation. Modellen täcker också all kraven för UDM, vilket vill säga den innehåller metoder för att uppfylla samtliga kraven.