Dyson and the Art of Feeding Instructions

OK - please plug your ears if you are under the age of 25: the Dyson vacuum cleaner has done more for the quality of my life than all my college textbooks COMBINED. I know praising the design of the Dyson is like praising the design of the iPhone - no one needs convincing - but I want to highlight one aspect of it that I hadn't anticipated: the absolute gorgeousness of the instructions, which truth be told are a good little example of how the whole experience with the Dyson works.

NOW: if you are not aware of the Dyson, you can peruse their website; though I would also suggest reading up on the inventor behind Dyson's technology. He wrote an autobiography detailing the experiences behind the invention of the "Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner" called Against the Odds, which you should be careful not to confuse with Against All Odds, the no-doubt just as awesome 2004 autobiography of Chuck Norris.

Suffice it to say that the Dyson vacuum cleaner is the greatest thing to happen in vacuum technology probably ever; and also the greatest thing to happen in my life ever, VACUUM OR OTHERWISE.

ANWAY: here is how the instruction booklet works: there is no instruction booklet. Or there is one, but it's superfluous, and it's like the size of a postcard. All the instructions that you need are actually printed somewhere on the machine itself, exactly at the point where and when you might be trying to figure something out.

And what this says is this: that in addition to understanding the principles of cyclonic suction (the greatest to happen in vacuum technology since ever), Mr. Dyson also understands that no one reads instruction booklets. (NOTE: I actually do read instruction books, and I'm extremely good at reading them, but I am, if not alone in this, extremely far apart from all my other instruction reading brethren). But rather than just throw his hands up in the air, give up in the face of people who shun instruction, Dyson totally judos your tossing the instruction booklet away by recapturing the instructions and drawing these little perfect diagrams on the machine itself.

AN EXAMPLE: Now, this diagram actually comes from the throwaway postcard, but there is something similar to it on the actual vacuum itself. And the experience is this: when looking at the part of the vacuum you slide over your floors, you see a set of brushes inside the head and a red button; before you can even formalize the question, you see a little diagram on the red button that indicates that pressing it will start and stop the brushes, and that you should turn them on for rugs and off for hardwood floors. Oh it's so delightful and humane!

The vacuum anticipates your questions and provides answers for you at the appropriate time - which is: when you're actually using the thing. Instruction books rarely work for people because 1. reading them is a totally separate act from actually using the thing and most people learn by doing anyway; and 2. the format is of course a book, and we are all used to ingesting books all in one go. Ingesting material all in one go makes sense for a story, but not for instructions. Instructions are best given out on an as-needed basis. The Dyson feeds them to you right from the moment you open the box, through assembly, into actual usage.