Ted Jones – Clear Instructions
Thesis Statement
You are planning your first hunt in the backcountry; you go out and buy your first KUIU pack system, most likely from their online store. The pack arrives to your house with an abundance of straps. The trek into the outdoors is a very unfamiliar place to a new hiker and clear instructions are very important to having an excellent experience. Along with that you have to pack your backpack properly and fit it perfectly to yourself.
Final Book 4.25 x 5.5"
The Beginning
Beginning the process of looking for thesis ideas, I had no idea on what I was going to base my project on. The one thing that I did know is that I wanted to do an instruction manual for a complex product. Not knowing which product that would be, I found myself searching for situations in which the instructions could be stronger, and honestly, there are a lot of products out in the world that could use better instructions. With so many products and processes out in the world, I began to think about things I was interested in but did not have a huge amount knowledge about.
This lead me to think about the outdoors and going on backcountry trips into the wild. Growing up with such a huge passion for the outdoors in the Midwest, the backcountry of the world is something I had less knowledge about. I have not been on a long backpacking trip or a backcountry hunt, but it is an activity that I have longed for. This sparked so many ideas from processing harvested game, tents, cooking and so many other ideas. One stood out the most to be because it has to be done first for any of those processes or products to take place.
The problem
Every time you hike into the backcountry for an extended period of time you have to carry a pack. This pack has to carry weight, be comfortable, accessible and reliable throughout your whole trek. So now I knew what product I would be focusing on but what process of that product was essential? The fitting process began to stir up right away because I went to get fitted for a pack at REI, and I learned quite a lot. I was wrongly fitting the pack to myself, weight distribution was off, and placement of the pack on my body needed adjustment and before those instructions were given to me, the packs were uncomfortable and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to carry a loaded pack like that for a long distance.
Then came my decision on what pack I would be illustrating instructions for. A new company in the outdoor industry stood out to me, it’s called KUIU. KUIU is a small outdoor company based out of Dixon, CA. KUIU has only one store in the nation, so most of their sales are online. This was interesting to me because a trained employee fixed my pack fitting process at REI, but KUIU would not be able to walk me through this step-by-step process in person. I purchased the Icon Pro 3200 from KUIU, which cost $460, when the pack arrived I opened it up to find a lackluster Microsoft Word instruction manual. Besides the fact that the instructions lacked designed attributes, it felt cheap compared to the high-end product they sell.
The Audience
As a customer of KUIU I expect something more for just spending $460. The audience was any new backcountry hunter or hiker that had little knowledge about packs or what was essential for packs throughout hikes. Also KUIU consumers in general because it felt like it was an over looked step in the process that could positively give the consumer a happier experience.
The Research
After I had found my problem, the research began. I started off by looking at instructions, good or bad. Finding that most visual instructions were very precise and achieved having little to no words. For a visual learner such as my self I began to really gravitate toward these directions. Two of the instructions I found that have clear emphases on the visual attributes were from IKEA and Lego. Both of which were different in their own way and both had strengths and weaknesses.
The Ikea instructions were clear, clean and visually pleasing with line drawing and visual keys, yet some steps were missing and sometimes hard to understand the step-by-step process throughout. The Lego instructions were different, they had a precise perspective throughout the steps but also were sometime cluttered with the different colors with in the different parts. This was not a bad thing because Legos are normally quite simple to distinguish separate parts, but this was an attribute that would not work for the pack.
IKEA Instructions on the left
Lego Instructions on the right
More Research
This research was not based on how instructions were illustrated but on how they were explained by a person. For this part of the research I watched videos on people explains the processes that had to do with packs, not just the KUIU pack but other packs as well to see if there was any general terminology for describing different parts or steps of the process. This part of the researched help me really understand the human interaction with packs and differences between pack systems.
Ultralight, K. TUTORIAL - KUIU Icon Pro and ULTRA Pack Fitting (Top Left)
Outer, E. KUIU Ultra 1800: My Current Daypack (Top Right)
D. 5 Mistakes Beginner Backpackers Make (Bottom Left)
Skurka, A. How to pack a backpack: Organization & load distribution (Bottom Right)
The Work
After all the research I began to sketch, using different types of visual attributes from instructions I had thought would work for my pack manual. After the sketch process I would test out my mockup manuals on someone who had no idea how to fit the pack to themselves. After some trial and error, more sketches and some hard long days of illustrating, I had some clean, clear and visually pleasing instructional steps.
Original sketches.
Then I thought I would be able to move into vector work.
First round of Vector drawings
As I would test these instructions on my test subjects, the vector illustrations would sometimes be hard to recognize and weren't fully illustrated making the different parts of the packs hard to understand. This made me step back and begin thumbnails again, speeding up my process.
Second round of Sketches
Even though the sketching process was back and forth between pencil and vector, I think it helped guide me to see the key elements that were necessary for my pack instructions format and step layout. Once I landed on the final layout of the steps I began to start with the hardest and most important step of the process, sliding the shoulder straps up and down to the proper measurement from the crest of the hip bone to T2 vertebra.
Measuring the length between the hip bone and T2 vertebra.
Second round of Vector: art style decisions 1
After the second round of illustration I began to choose an art style that would become the parent to all the illustrations throughout the instructions manual. The first few were solid colors with an accent color to articulate the part of the pack that is necessary to the step. This art style was quite cluttered and hard to read.
Second round of Vector: art style decisions 2
Figuring out that solid colors would not work well next to one another, the next step was to try line drawings and adjusting the thickness of the strokes. This became very clear and easy to read but not as clear as it possible could be. Adding color to the essential part gave it more emphasis but I decided to push it even farther. Pushing the contrast to the max where the stroke of the whole pack would be a light grey and the essential part would have a thicker black stroke, filled with an orange as the highlighting color.
Final art style
The Conclusion
In conclusion, the overall process and project of creating a visually communicative instruction manual for a complex process and product, I think I achieved what I set out to accomplish. KUIU is a company that deserves to have clearly designed instruction manuals for all their products; personally I think they owe it to their customers as well. The art style and layout system is very transparent and I could see it translating great into other products from KUIU as well as other companies’ products that need clear instructions with some minor tweaks to suit their brand.
As I embark into the adult world I plan to show KUIU these instructions to see what they think and if they could use the system I have created. This process had also taught me a lot of time management skills, different ways to illustrate the same thing, and how not to over think the little steps in instructions because that can determine how successful your instructions are going to be. The enjoyment it also brought out in teaching someone a new process, is something I was really hoping to achieve. That is something I really enjoy, this project made me realize how much I really do enjoy those teaching moments. I hope to create more instructions in the near future.
The Sources
Bandlands. (2012, March 01). Badlands 4500 How To. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4EN9S_ARy0
Bandlands. (2012, October 29). Fitting Your Badlands Hunting Pack (Advanced). Retrieved from
Borgenicht , L., M.D., & Borgenicht, J. (2003). The Baby Owner’s Manual: Operating Instructions, Trouble-Shooting Tips, and Advice on First-Year Maintenance (Owner’s and Instruction Manual (P. Kepple & J. Buffum, Illustrators.). Quirk Books.
Brown, A. H., Green, T. D., & Green, T. D. (2015). The Essentials of Instructional Design: Connecting Fundamental Principles with Process and Practice, Third Edition. Florence: Taylor and Francis.
D. (2017, December 20). 5 Mistakes Beginner Backpackers Make [Video file]. Retrieved February 03, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyELg2kRJOs
Dirksen, J. (2016). Design for how people learn. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.
Exo Mountain Gear. (2017, June 14). Properly fitting your Exo Mountain Gear K² Frame. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkNKiEQmk8A
Gregory, A. (2010, March 16). 7 Tips for Writing an Effective Instruction Manual. Retrieved from
Hairston, J. (2013, September 12). TUTORIAL: Fitting Your KUIU ICON Pack [Video File].Retrieved March 07, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whS3sZEatT4
IKEA. (n.d.). Billy Instructions PDF [Brochure]. Sweden: Author.
KUIU. (2016). Kuiu Ultralight Hunting [Icon Pro Pack & Carbon Fiber Frame Instruction Manual]. Dixon, CA.
LEGO. (n.d.). Red Racing Plane [Brochure]. CA: Author.
The Lego Group
Lupton, E., & Phillips, J. C. (2015). Graphic design: the new basics: second edition revised and expanded (2nd ed.). San Fransisco , CA: Chronicle Books.
Malamed, C. (2015). Visual design solutions: Principles and creative inspiration for learning professionals. Hoboken: Wiley.
Outer, E. (Director). (2017, June 25). Kuiu Ultra 1800: My Current Daypack [Video file].Retrieved January 25, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHeol_vuB2w
REI. (2013, September 23). How to Pack a Backpack: REI Experts [Video File].Retrieved February 2, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB7ZOjnnFS8
REI. (2014, September 26). How to Choose a Backpacking Pack [Video File].
Retrieved February 04, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcfYXSR-Jtc
Skurka, A. (2016, September 19). How to pack a backpack: Organization & load distribution [Video File]. Retrieved February 03, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1UZvwPnA_o
TSguestblogger on February 21, 2017February 21, 2018. (2018, February 21). How to Create Step-by-Step Instructions Using Visuals. Retrieved from https://www.techsmith.com/blog/create-instructions-using-visuals
Ultralight, K. (2018, January 22). TUTORIAL - KUIU Icon Pro and ULTRA Pack Fitting [Video File]. Retrieved February 02, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5QUJrs1pBE
