Of electric toothbrushes and information design

In a previous article, I mused about the future of technical writing in a post-ChatGPT world and proposed information design as a way forward for technical writers.

In this article, I will expand on this idea by exploring the documentation that came with a recent purchase of mine—an electric toothbrush—and how an information designer might have approached this documentation differently.

This analysis isn’t likely to be ground-breaking. According to Wikipedia, electric toothbrushes have been around since 1937, and the oscillating rotating type that I purchased has been around since the 1990s. I suspect these products’ manufacturers have already implemented a lot of the ideas I recommend in this article. My intent is to show how the mindset of an information designer can differ from that of a more traditional technical writer and how the resulting information products can, as a result, be far more beneficial.

About the documentation that came with my toothbrush

The documentation that came with my toothbrush was printed double-sided on a 9" × 14" sheet of paper folded to fit inside the box along with the toothbrush and the charging unit. The documentation was in English and French (I live in Canada) and covered four different models. Interestingly, none of the model numbers listed in the documentation matched the model name on the box. I eventually found a corresponding model number on the bottom of the toothbrush itself, though (more about this later).

If you’ve ever written or read documentation for an electronic product, the contents of my toothbrush’s documentation won’t surprise you:

• Important information and warnings
• Instructions for charging, using, and cleaning the toothbrush and how and when to replace the brush head, with illustrations
• Information about removing and recycling the rechargeable battery in the toothbrush, with illustrations
• Information about the product warranty
• Contact information for the manufacturer

This is a textbook example of technical documentation for a consumer product. It covers all the information that I suspect regulatory bodies require for sale of electric toothbrushes in Canada. The writing is a little formal, but most people who buy this product should be able to read and understand it.

Like many modern consumer products, my electronic toothbrush is available in several models. The manufacturer has chosen to create a single document to cover all models. This is not an uncommon practice, but it does require purchasers to identify the model they've bought before they'll know which parts of the documentation apply to that model. An important characteristic of my toothbrush is that it’s the product of a partnership between Braun and Oral-B (owned by Proctor and Gamble). Braun manufactures the motor and charging unit, and P&G has designed the brush head and markets and distributes the toothbrush. I suspect this accounts for the discrepancy between the model number listed in the documentation and on the toothbrush itself and the model name of the product on the box. The former appear to be the designations for the product from Braun, while the latter is from Oral-B/P&G.

This kind of partnership isn’t unique to electric toothbrushes. Almost all modern products are the creations of vast networks of businesses. I suspect more than a few technical writers have had to contend with how to identify a product that has many different names.

Who reads this documentation?

I realize the preceding few paragraphs are probably the most anyone has ever written about the documentation that comes with an electric toothbrush. Most people who buy these toothbrushes likely throw out the documentation with the packaging. A few may keep the documentation for the warranty information. Even fewer might bother to read the documentation at all.

This raises the question of why the manufacturer of the toothbrush should bother to provide anything but the minimal amount of documentation required by law and to invest anything but the minimum in the people who create the documentation.

The perspective of an information designer might provide an interesting answer.

Information design for electric toothbrushes

Before putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), an information designer would start with two simple questions: Who buys electric toothbrushes and why?

A full persona for an electric toothbrush owner is out of the scope of this article, but here are a few assumptions we can make with a fair amount of certainty:

• The person is relatively affluent. (Even a basic electric toothbrush is more expensive than a manual one.)
• The person is concerned with their oral health and able and willing to invest in it.
• The person likely goes to a dentist regularly, and his or her dentist may have recommended an electric toothbrush.
• The person is comfortable with using electric (and likely electronic) products.

These assumptions raise several possibilities for an information product strategy. For example, an important secondary audience for electric toothbrushes is dentists. An information designer might consider creating a website and print materials that resellers of electric toothbrushes could use when promoting their wares to dentists. This documentation could go into more detail than the documentation for the primary audience (the purchasers of the toothbrush). It could explain the advantages of an electric toothbrush over its competition and might even show dentists how they can demonstrate the proper use of the toothbrush to their patients.

Another possible information product for electric toothbrushes based on our audience analysis might be a YouTube video channel for first-time purchasers that provides short, one or two minute videos, demonstrating product basics and linking to information on good oral hygiene practices. A QR code could be printed on the packaging that tech-savvy purchasers could scan with their smart phones to view this information.

These and other possibilities transform a legal requirement (and cost) for the manufacturer that is more often than not ignored by the purchaser into a relatively cost-effective means of promoting a product and differentiating it from the competition.

A final thought

I noted earlier that my particular electric toothbrush is the product of a partnership between Braun and P&G. The documentation appears to be from Braun (the manufacturer of the motor and charger). From the product-oriented perspective of a traditional technical writer, this makes sense. A technical writer from Braun would presumably be more knowledgeable about the mechanics of the toothbrush than one working at P&G.

The kind of information products I propose in this article might be better if created by an information designer from P&G or even from a third-party firm specializing in dental and oral hygiene information hired by P&G.

As we move from traditional technical writing to information design, we might find our employers change as well—away from the designers and manufacturers of products (or even components of products) and towards businesses that work more directly with the end uses of products.

We’ll still need to provide technical information from designers and manufacturers of products, so finding ways to transmit this information from designers and manufacturers to information designers to customers will be critical. This may be where standards like DITA come into play.

Information design opens a world of possibilities for technical writers—one we can and should embrace.