Technical Illustration
Coleman
Clear, trilingual instruction manuals for Coleman solar panel kits.
- Role
- Art Director & Illustrator
- Studio
- Sunforce Products
- Year
- 2017
- Tools
- Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Photoshop
The challenge
Sunforce Products was getting frequent support calls and complaints about its Coleman solar panels. The products were complex and the existing manuals weren’t clear enough. I was asked to conceive, design and illustrate new trilingual manuals.
The approach
Planning
I met with the product developer to understand exactly how each product worked and was assembled, then sketched a draft to find the clearest way to guide the user.
Photography
For each step, I laid out and photographed the parts, testing camera angles to best show how the pieces connect.
Layout & illustration
I placed the photos into the layout to check the flow, then illustrated each step. Inspired by IKEA manuals, I used varied stroke weights, arrows, dotted lines and callouts to highlight key details.
User testing
I asked coworkers to install the product using only the manual. Watching where each person struggled let me improve it even further.
The outcome
The new manuals were well received and significantly reduced support calls for those products. The layout also gave the company a more unified look across its product line and a template for future designers.
