The instructions without words

Text A: an original contemporary practice extract.

The shelving kit arrived with a folded sheet of pictures. I had expected to need a dictionary for the technical names, but the drawing of a long screw beside a short one let me compare the actual pieces directly. A shaded edge showed which face of the board should point outwards. For the first few stages, the picture answered the question before I had found words for it.

I spread the parts on the floor in the same arrangement as the drawing. Each arrow connected a movement with the piece that needed to move. I was slow, but I did not have to translate an instruction such as rotate the bracket and then wonder which bracket the writer meant. The shape on the page remained available beside the shape in my hand.

Pictures can be unclear, and I would welcome a short explanation for the most difficult stages. These worked because the scale and viewpoint stayed consistent. Good wordless instructions are not simply instructions with the sentences removed. They are drawings made to guide an action.

Text B: an original contemporary practice extract.

The picture showed the panel turning neatly into position. Mine stopped halfway because a screw needed loosening first. There was no arrow for loosening and no sentence explaining that the fitting should remain adjustable until the final stage. I had followed what the drawing displayed and still done the work in the wrong order.

A picture is useful for recognising a part, but it can hide the reason behind a movement. At the next stage, two almost identical drawings represented a temporary position and a finished one. A short phrase saying do not tighten yet would have told me more than another view of the same screw. Silence did not make the instructions universal; it made me guess.

Keep the diagrams, especially where words would describe a shape badly. Add words where timing, warning or purpose matters. An instruction should use whichever form makes the next decision clear. A sheet becomes simpler for its designer when every sentence disappears. It becomes simpler for the person assembling the shelf only if the missing sentence was unnecessary.

Compare how the writers present their ideas and perspectives about wordless assembly instructions. Support your comparisons with detailed references to both texts.