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Imagine the size of that flat pack box and the weird wordless IKEA instruction sheet.

The "weird wordless IKEA instruction sheet" is actually a thing of genius, because it's universal: it allows them to sell their furniture anywhere they like. Contrast that to the typical approach of American or British companies, who start by printing their instructions only in English, and are then surprised that there are other languages and they have to provide instructions in those languages too if they want to sell to non-English-speaking countries...

LEGO was one of the first ones I remember that did this. Almost all their promo material was pretty language agnostic if I recall. Even now the sets have multiple languages on the box

> weird wordless IKEA instruction sheet.

Where did this trope come from exactly? I can't remember the instructions being unclear, really.

It usually works pretty well unless it’s complicated. The classic example I give of “complicated” is anything involving a spring loaded or roller mechanism like a drawer.

Though even the weird wordless complicated is almost always better than the alternative, which is English words poorly described

Perhaps it's just reality.

The instructions are purely graphical.

Which is completely natural to anyone who’s grown up with legos.

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