Boekelder, A., & Steehouder, M. (1998). Selecting and switching: some advantages of diagrams over tables and lists for presenting instructions. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 41(4), 229-241.

Boekelder, A.; Seehouder, M.

1998

Boekelder, A., & Steehouder, M. (1998). Selecting and switching: some advantages of diagrams over tables and lists for presenting instructions. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 41(4), 229-241.

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Instructions for operating a control panel were presented in five different formats: flowchart, logical tree, yes/no tree, decision table, and list. Subjects had to choose one out of eight buttons, depending on the settings of the control panel. The results show that the decision table resulted in more errors, and that both the decision table and the list took longer than the three other formats, which did not show mutual differences. It turned out that the subjects valued most the format they had been using, except for those who had worked with the list. It is suggested that the users' ease of orientation for a diagram's format, both during reading and after "switching" between equipment and instructional text, explains the differences between the formats.

Our experiment suggests that flowcharts, yes/no trees, and logical trees are more appropriate for instructions than decision tables (which yield more errors) or lists (which take more time and are appreciated less by users). As long as the individual verifications have only two outcomes, these three formats seem to be equally appropriate, but it seems important to restrict instructions to one format, since users prefer the format they have become familiar with.

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