Open Here: The Art of Instructional Design

This is not one of those `How to design instructional material for Dummies' books (if it was I certainly wouldn't own a copy) but a beautifully designed and printed book with hundreds of illustrations and diagrams showing how designers have attempted to explain, mostly visually, how we should handle everyday technology. Not only technology but simple stuff too, page eighty-seven shows the instructions, usually printed on tissue paper as I recall, on how to complete one of this little wooden puzzles you can buy in arcade shops, this one is for a camel.Instructional design is serious stuff, a matter of life and death in some cases. The fold-out on page forty-seven shows forty-one examples of those emergency exit and life jacket cards you find in the seat pocket facing you on a plane. Although they all provide the same information, the type of illustration and layout is different in each example. Simple instructions can be the hardest to put across, just how do you depict, in a simple visual way, the action of washing out your mouth with a glass of water, page 126 shows how with a profile of a boys head and four arrows describing a circular motion printed on his cheek, his hand holds a tilting glass with the water.Here is a lovely book for graphic designers to leave on their coffee table.

I was looking for theory; so I was initially disappointed, but once I got past that I started enjoying it as a catalogue of both best and worst practices. It's funny. There's a particularly good example of how to use a toilet bib.

Don't buy it if you need to know how to do instructional design, instead enjoy the interesting illustrations and examples through the ages. Worthwhile addition to a well-rounded design collection.

Really nice book with beautiful images! If you don't know how to open a can or what to do in a plane crash - buy this book!