Analysing existing products

Jordan Bohill

Analysing existing productsBatmobile Instructions

Analysing existing productsUse of sharp bold font is used to make it more relatable to the batman identity and also relatable to the type of audience that this instructions manual would be aimed at.

The manual would be aimed at a mainly male audience I think this because the writing is bold and masculine and the batman collection is typically associated with males.

Each piece of instructions is clearly labeled (1.2.3.4.) this makes the steps easy to follow for anybody. I think the simplicity of this would mean it is likely aimed at a younger audience that needs easy instructions to follow.

Clear illustrations on the manual also make it easier to follow as it points to the exact things it is talking to and again references the name so you can refer back to the instructional writing.

No use of colour in the manual would suggest that they were trying to simplify the instructions even more to make it easier to read on just a simple black and white format and also to follow the batman theme of black and then just used the white to contrast against the black writing as it is the easiest colour scheme to match together. But I think that this b&w colour scheme was probably used because of the time the instructions were probably made and published with the toy and it would have been easier printing these in mass in black and white rather than colour and also cheaper. This is probably the same reason the background looks a stained brown colour, it is most likely ageing rather than the colour it was printed out as.

Analysing existing products

Caution within the instructions shows that the company have thought about the safety risks of this toy and the fact the included this in one of the instruction stages shows that they were trying to get this across as a instruction to kids which could have mad it more effective.

Analysing existing products

Analysing existing productsNERF Instructions

Analysing existing productsCompared to the last instructions manual this one is a lot less simplistic, the fact it displays the age advisory for this toy would suggest that the reason they are a lot less simpler is because this product is aimed at a older audience but still for kids.

This product also makes the caution message a lot more apparent compared to the first example of the caution message that was just hidden within the writing. The use of black font on a red background grabs peoples attentions to the warning as this is the colours associated with bad things like warnings and caution signs. They also used a very simplistic clear font compared to the rest of the manual this could be again to show its importance and that it needs to be read urgently to stay safe. I think the way this company displayed their warning message was a lot better because it was clearly and showed they wanted to keep people safer than the batman example.

On the instructions front cover the company's branding is displayed and takes up more of the page than the actual product that it is instructing for. I think think is on one of its drawbacks, displaying the company branding on the back at the bottom I think is fine but with more of the page cover with the branding I think it makes it look unprofessional and cluttered. ‘NERF’ should be the only one on the front for the main products branding.

Analysing existing productsThe instructions for this product are made to look simple but in detail they are a lot more complex and harder to follow than it would appear. The arrows/illustrations on the diagrams aren't very clear on how you do things, the written instructions need to be a lot more detailed as they are very vague and need a lot of your own interpretation to be able to to try and rely on the diagrams like this.

The instructions underneath for changing the batteries was written out a lot clearer and were easier to follow. Although changing batteries is something fairly simple the instructions written out from this were a lot more detailed which could have helped the ‘Clearing a jam’ instructions.

Analysing existing productsThe colour scheme used for this instructions manual were following the ‘NERF’ colour scheme of reds, yellows and oranges. I think this may be to represent fighting as you are using guns, although they are clearly toys its just to have the effect of blood and danger. They used caps throughout all the text on the front of the manual this made things clearer to read and they used a font that you could associate with this guns and warfare theme. It looks like old fashioned digital text that you may see on old screens in the army. This front page of the manual did help back up the basic instructions as it had a clearly labeled diagram of the toy with annotations for each part.

Analysing existing productsThe leaflet uses bright colours to grab peoples attention. the choice of colour scheming isn't what I would chose as I think it should be toned down more for more of a direct impact maybe by using photographs to show the problem in more detail. The flow of the colours along with the sketched illustrations and almost hand drawn looking font works really well together to grab peoples attention and have an impact in a different way to photographs that does work really well but might not have as much of an impact.

I think the colour scheme and illustrations in this leaflet might suggest that this leaflet may be aimed at a younger audience as they are the next generation to try and turn this around. The writing uses lots of slang, abbreviations and also alliteration which could also suggest its aimed at younger people by trying to relate to them with this type of language.

Analysing existing productsThe leaflet refers to ‘you’ being the reader multiple times speaking out to the audience as it wants to create a direct approach to the audience so that you have your own impact on this matter. This make the audience feel more involved as it is a direct approach. It is very clear that they are trying to talk direct as when the word ‘YOU’ is used it is wrote out in the bold font used for all of the subheading so it clearly highlights the importance of a direct approach. The use of this font and size of the font distinguishes the important one word headings to the main information.

This leaflet backs up their campaign by making their leaflet out of biodegradable paper and chemically safe natural inks to colour the paper is a nice way to support their campaign and show that you can work around using things that don’t dissolve and may end up littering the ocean.

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