ABSTRACT
Consider the challenges facing technical communicators (i.e., technical writers) who design and produce medical device user manuals: First, their work must address the needs of an especially diverse audience, starting with caregivers and extending to trainers, biomedical engineers, sales personnel, government regulators, and many others. Because of its broad potential audience, the typical medical device user manual must be several documents in one. Second, technical communicators often have only limited resources and time to produce high-quality manuals as their companies speed products to market. Third, a user manual’s primary audience — arguably the nurses, physicians, and technicians who deliver direct care to patients — tend to prefer engaging in hands-on training over reading user manuals. The popularity of the hands-on approach creates a perception of user manuals as perfunctory — a perception that could take the wind out of any technical writer’s sails.
