Applying the Spatial-Contiguity Effect to Software Manuals

Research on the design of user manuals has supported the multimedia principle, asserting the effectiveness of including screen captures along with text in procedural learning tasks. However, much of this research has yet to focus on several other major design principles presented in Mayer's Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning. This paper will provide designers and developers of user manuals a new perspective on the design process based on principles from instructional design, as described in Mayer's research. Mayer showed that students indeed learned more deeply when the design of multimedia documents adhered to these principles, regardless of medium. This study will discuss the ways in which user manuals adhere to one of Mayer's principles, the spatial-contiguity effect, and will provide recommendations about how user manuals can be improved by greater adherence to that principle