How To Create a User Manual or User Guide [+ Free Template]

Customers may struggle to fully understand new products, but good instructions offer much-needed clarity.

Detailed user manuals and guides allow audiences to answer their own questions, saving support teams time. These resources are vital to an excellent customer experience and a winning brand image.

User guides and manuals both provide support. But guides are primarily step-by-step instructions on using a product, while manuals cover instructions alongside other topics, such as safety precautions and maintenance. Still, the terms are often used interchangeably.

Read on to discover how to effortlessly create effective user manuals and guides with templates and AI tools.

What’s a User Guide?

A user guide or product guide is an instructional material that accompanies your product, service or system to help end users use it. They're also known as:

End-user documentation.
User manuals.
Product manuals
Instruction manuals.
Training manuals.

The goal of a user guide is to provide step-by-step user instructions (or assembly for physical products) to help users better understand your product or service. They cover detailed information like:

Operations.
Functionalities.
Standards.
Guidelines.
Troubleshooting.

... and more.

Technical writers usually create user guides. But they can also be written by product developers, project managers, programmers or technical teams with the help of knowledge base software.

Free User Manual Template

User guides cover all aspects of a product, including its design, operation, potential issues, problems and more. They can include:

Product description content.
Product features.
Product installation guide.
Setup and configuration.
Use cases.
Potential product risks and how to solve them.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs).
Product demos, video tutorials and walkthroughs.
Troubleshooting tips.
How-to articles.
Help pages.

Try this free user guide template to kick-start your user documentation.

How To Create a User Manual in 6 Steps

Here's a summary of essential steps to include when creating a compelling and valuable user guide.

1. Identify Your Audience

Who will use the guide? When identifying your audience, you'll need to consider:

Level of technical knowledge.
Demographics.
User needs.
Common problems or frustrations.
Requirements.
Other related information.

This will tell you how much detail your user manual should have and the form, style and language to use.

Identify the potential problems and provide solutions in your guide. The guide should fix the problem rather than simply give users workarounds.

2. Outline Process Steps

Map out the user journey and capture every touchpoint along the journey. See your product from the user's perspective to be sure you create customer-centric user documentation.

You may need to categorize your users into segments based on their product use cases to develop a complete guide that works for all users.

Break down your instructions into a sequence, such as a numbered list, steps, etc., to organize your guide so that it's easy to understand and apply.

Also, stick to one point per step to make the instructions easy to follow. Tell users what the completed step will look like before they move to the next step.

3. Choose a Tool or Template

Your documentation needs to be consistent. We recommend using a tool like Scribe to help you write a user guide.

Scribe is an AI-powered tool that writes user guides for you. The tool captures your workflow to create a visual step-by-step guide — in seconds.

You can also use a template to help you create a user guide. Choose a style that's clear and easy to follow, with elements like:

Introduction space.
Sections and subsections.
Sequential steps.
How-to instructions.
Links to other sections or content.
FAQs.

Also, stay consistent with your font size, text, background, contrast and color coding.

4. Structure Your User Document

A well-written user manual needs an organized structure for easy navigation, readability and convenience. Here are some suggestions to format your content.

Divide content into sections with titles, headings, subheadings and categories.
Use bold and italics to separate different information.
Use capital words or underline key terms.
Create a table of contents for the whole guide and each section for easy navigation.
Number your steps.
Explain symbols, icons, graphs, and codes, so your users aren't confused.

Creating a good structure is important for easy navigation and scanning.

Can your users understand your content and follow it? Write your user guide content in simple, clear and compelling language. Streamline your content to include only essential elements to avoid bogging readers down.

It's best to assume that your audience lacks an extensive technical background, so avoid jargon and technical terminology when possible.

5. Review Your User Guide

Before you release the document, put your instructions to the test. Ask stakeholders to run through the process with your user documentation. Use this time to see if anything is missing or redundant.

Make sure that your language is clear and easy to understand. Ask someone who has never gone through the process to confirm.

If it works for a user who's never used the product before, it's a great user manual. If your tester gets stuck, note where users are confused and revise the content. Your goal is for users to resolve their issues without submitting support tickets.

6. Publish and Distribute Your User Guide

Once the guide is ready, choose your distribution channel. This could include:

Physical copies.
Digital formats (such as PDFs or Scribes)
Integrations in the product's software interface (such as embedded or recommended Scribes)

Also, implement regular updates and feedback mechanisms to keep the user guide current and address user concerns. This way, you'll enhance the overall user experience and product satisfaction.

User guide software can help you monitor and easily update your content over time.

Key Elements for Effective User Manuals and Guides

While all user manuals and software documentation differ, following these best practices produces precise, helpful guides.

Clarity

Manuals and guides should use plain language and avoid technical jargon so all readers, regardless of technical proficiency, can follow along. Clear, straightforward instructions also help users solve problems faster, improving their opinion of a product and reducing support calls.

Another way to enhance clarity is to organize content in logical categories by placing information where people expect to find it. For example, an “AI Assistant” category might benefit from subtopics like “AI Suggestions” and “Ask Your Assistant.”

Structure and Flow

Establishing a natural user manual structure ensures customers easily understand crucial details. For example, a guide might explain how to set up a new account before diving into troubleshooting issues. Every new customer will need to open their account, but they may not all have complex IT concerns.

A structured approach is vital when creating step-by-step user guides. New customers can successfully use a product without issues, and users who know what they’re looking for can jump into the middle of a specific step.

Visual Elements

High-quality visuals like screenshots, graphics and videos make instructions easier to comprehend and use. They also make manuals more engaging.

If you build a guide with Scribe, our tool automatically adds screenshots of each step, helping people understand instructions and follow processes.

Intuitive Navigation

Help users find information quickly with thoughtful navigation features. All manuals should have a comprehensive table of contents and search functionality so people can find the section they need.

Another way to enhance navigation is to provide links to related documents, which direct people to similar content and redirect users who didn’t find an answer to their questions. For example, a user manual on “How To Record a Video” could link to a guide on “Video Recording Errors.”

What Are the Different Types of User Guides?

Learn which user guide template is the best fit for your content.

Instruction Manual

Instruction manuals are basic, step-by-step guides that teach new customers how to use a product. To increase comprehension, add clear images, screenshots, videos and diagrams.

Our customizable Instruction Manual Template is a great place to start. It includes a product overview, maintenance instructions and warranty information.

Training Manual

Training manuals are internal documents that help new employees understand how to perform a task or process. For example, a company might define work instructions for creating IT support tickets.

These guides should be highly detailed, include screenshots of every step and provide relevant links to improve understanding. Thorough manuals help employees digest information, leading to better staff autonomy and more consistent task results.

Use our Training Manual Template and create actionable instructions for any training program, from onboarding new hires to educating workers on safety regulations. And the Customer Service Training Manual is perfect for getting sales and support staff up to speed.

User Manual

User manuals provide detailed information about a product, such as its features, setup and operation. They’re similar to instruction manuals but also offer broader advice like cleaning instructions and troubleshooting tips.

To create these, start with the User Manual Template and open Scribe. Walk through user best practices on your computer, and within minutes, Scribe builds and shares an actionable guide.

Operations Manual

Operations manuals outline company processes and values, including an organization’s purpose, objectives and deliverables. These guides detail the business’s ins and outs and are an essential training resource for new employees.

Often, operations documents contain a library of information, so having a clear table of contents and an easy search function is vital. Creating an in-depth manual like this can seem daunting, but drafting one with our Operations Manual Template is simple. Build a valuable guide containing work instructions, employee roles and responsibilities and company policies in minutes instead of hours.

Organizational Policy Manual

Organizational policy manuals discuss company-wide rules and guidelines. Set accurate expectations by outlining topics like leave allowance and flexible work policies.

Start with one of our Policy and Procedure templates to build a detailed organizational guide. Outline compensation, sick leave, emergency procedures and security policies to boost understanding and save HR staff time.

Standard Operating Procedures Manual

Standard operating procedure (SOP) manuals explain how to complete workplace procedures. These guides set quality standards by ensuring employees use consistent methods and best practices.

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To make SOPs detailed and easy to follow, use Scribe to automatically build manuals as you perform tasks. Our SOP Manual Template prompts you to fill in everything needed to share accurate, actionable guides.

Build Your Own User Manual

Practical user manuals save time and reduce confusion, which benefits both the customer and employee. But creating clear, logical and attractive documentation isn’t easy. Let Scribe help.

Scribe shaves time off the documentation creation process. Simply turn on the tool and begin completing a task. Scribe captures each detail of the procedure and takes step-by-step screenshots, producing consistent, accurate manuals.

FAQs

What’s the Difference Between System, Product and User Documentation?

System documentation describes a system, its components, and their interactions. It helps people understand and use the system.

Product documentation and user documentation are the two main types of system documentation.

Product documentation is written for developers, system administrators and other technical users. It describes the system requirements, design and implementation.
User documentation is written for customers or employees, describing how to use the system for its intended purpose.

What Makes a Good User Guide?

Each product or service may be unique, but their user guides may share certain features for easy reference, like:

1. Use simple language

Customers can feel frustrated when they can't understand technical terms. Using plain language, short sentences and simple words when writing a user guide make it easy to follow.

2. Logical hierarchy

Help users find what they need fast by including a table of contents, titles, headings, subheadings and sections.

3. Visuals

Without visuals, your user manual is just a long, boring text block. Include visuals like videos, images, screenshots, diagrams, etc., to create engaging documentation.

‍4. Searchable content

Give customers an online search form for quick navigation. Providing a digital knowledge base with a search engine makes finding the support they need easy.

5. Relevance

A good user guide has informational articles relevant to meet user needs. Organize your topics in a way that makes sense to the user. Too many topics or sub-topic levels in product documentation can overwhelm users.

6. Feedback and reviews

Actively seek user feedback to know what to include, what works and what needs to be improved. Incorporate relevant suggestions in your user manual.

7. Links to more resources

Include links to other internal resources and pages to help users improve their product knowledge. You can include links to a demo, website, tutorials, user forums, FAQs, phone numbers, etc.

How Do You Write a User Guide?

When writing a user guide, it is essential to provide clear and concise instructions for users to follow.

Consider your target audience and their level of technical knowledge.
Use a step-by-step format.
Include screenshots or diagrams.
Avoid jargon and overly complex technical terms.

What Are the Common Challenges of Creating User Guides?

Long and technical documentation:

A user manual contains detailed instructions (maintenance, operating, technical), descriptions, diagrams, flow charts, drawings and more. Being concise can be challenging.

Time-consuming

It can be time-consuming to write complex user guides. Users will have difficulty using your product if they're unclear and detailed.

Comprehensive

User guides must be accurate and complete. For example, if your product can run on multiple operating systems, you'll need more than one version. A task on Mac may require a different approach on Windows or Linux.

Product updates

Most products (especially SaaS) are constantly updated. So, when writing the manuals, you'll need to revisit and revise as your product changes.

Technical language and abilities

Developers, programmers, program managers and technical writers have technical knowledge but may not be able to write in simple, easy-to-understand language.

Save 20+ hours a month explaining, training & answering quick questions. Send a Scribe instead.

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Introduction