Entertaining or functional:An analysis of visuals in Chinese and Western household appliance manuals

In today's global world, understanding local user preferences becomes an increasingly essential skill, especially for technical communicators who design products for people in other cultures. This study attempts to analyze and compare visuals in Chinese and Western manuals because visuals play an essential role in manuals. Based on a systematically designed coding scheme, we analyzed 50 Western and 50 Chinese household product manuals (1895 pages in total) designed in their own cultures and published after 2007. Results show many differences between Chinese and Western manuals with regard to visuals. All differences seem to point in the same direction; Chinese visuals appear to have an entertaining function while Western visuals are not meant to entertain the readers but have an informative or instructive function. This study aims to enhance the mutual understanding of information designers in cross-cultural manual design.</p