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Comment by mech422 | Hacker News Reader

I'd be more impressed if they can figure out Ikea directions :-P

I actually find ikea instructions quite clear and reasonable. I don't know why so many people have a hard time with it. Maybe spacial awareness is not something you can learn easily.

I mostly agree, but once in a while there are very subtle things, like 4 parts that at a glance look identical in both the diagrams and in reality but only if you're really paying attention do you realize they weren't actually the same. I've had to disassemble and reassemble things when I missed such a detail and then things didn't fit/work as expected.

Of course it's my fault for missing the tiny difference. On the other hand, they could also design better. Put post-it style (meaning easily removable) stickers on the different parts so the instructions can call out the step 5 needs the parts with the stickers, not the parts without. Etc...

I got cabinet from Wayfair, I don't remember the brand but the instructions were surprisingly better. As just one example they had put every set of parts it it's own numbered bag. The bags were all one long strip (kind of like the way zots candy's come) where each portion of the long crimped bag had different parts and a number printed on the bag. The instructions then referred to the bag. Vs Ikea where all the parts are in a single bag and it can be difficult to notice some of the bolts are 60mm and others are 64mm

I've never failed to correctly build Ikea furniture and I've probably built ~60+ pieces but there is arguably room for improvement.

Ikea instructions are mostly fine. They could do with what lego does if there's similar parts though. A lot of ikea furniture has chiral parts and it almost never gets called out in the manual.

I get a real B&W experience with Ikea - it would be interesting to have a technical writing expert compare the Ikea instructions and the Lego instructions. Lego seems to generally be accepted as more universally simple, and yet Ikea products frequently have fewer parts and steps.

I find both quite clear. I think the main difference is that it's a lot more frustrating if you mess up a step in Ikea instructions than in a Lego build. So if you're bad at spatial reasoning or following instructions, you can still have fun with Lego, you'll just need to redo some steps sometimes and you might not even remember it, but the same kind of mistake with Ikea will throw you in a fit of rage.

Ehh. Ikea instructions have their issues:

- branching paths aren't well marked

- I often find typos (e.g. go to page 16 when it's really page 17)

- parts page sometimes doesn't match the supplied parts in terms of size and shape

- it's not always clear when parts are optional

- some things come as separate pieces and it's not clear how they go together as the instructions are for each piece and not the entire assembly

I hope Ikea is reading this!

I don't get it either. Every single non-Ikea flat-pack thing I've assembled has had much worse instructions than Ikea. Plus usually been more expensive and lower quality than the Ikea equivalent.

Try assembling furniture from another maker (e.g. anything from Target, Home Depot, etc) and you'll be thirsting for the clarity, completeness, and the large, legible print of Ikea instructions.

Step 1: build half of the bed. Step 2: build the other half.

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