REVIEW ON KINGSTON DATATRAVELER

BLACKBOX USER MANUAL

NAME: TEO WEN HAN

STUDENT ID: 19ACB06705

NAME: PETER LEE WEI YANG

STUDENT ID: 18ACB07222

TITLE: KINGSTON DATATRAVELER BLACKBOX USER

MANUAL

COURSE OF STUDY: MPU32143 ENGLISH FOR INFORMATION

TECHNOLOGY

TUTORIAL GROUP: T11

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Introduction

In recent years, the user manual of IT products is highly significant in the contemporary

world, where rapid technological development, social change and the ubiquity of IT

technologies are an integral part of people's daily lives. With rapid and extensive technical

development, the user manual has become the concern and interest, with a growing number of

IT product manufacturers and users. The user manual is intended to give help people using a

particular product, which provides important information to use a product to the user. Proper

use of the device reduces the risk of unexpected product errors. The user manual has become a

stepping stone for people using the IT product, it is essential for any product since they ensure

better customer experience, save the time and efforts of customer support agents. Sometimes,

by reading the user manual, you can immediately understand the importance of the product to

the manufacturer and the overall appearance of the product.

Kingston DataTraveler BlackBox (DTBB) user manual was aimed to help users become

familiar with this product. The first page of this user manual shown the features of DTBB. By

reading the user manual, we can find that it was compliant with USB 2.0 high speed and

compatible with 1.1 full speed, it means the flash drive can transfer the data at a fast rate, at the

same time it also supports the slower transfer speed for the connected device. The flash drive

also includes fully secure partitions with complex password support and the encryption based

on 256-bit AES hardware. These ensure the security of the stored data in the flash drive. It also

meets the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 Level 2 certification by the

U.S. government.

There is some system requirement to run this flash drive. The minimum requirement of

the processer for DTBB is Inter Pentium III Processor or newer version. The storage of the

computer needs 16 MB of free disk space for installing the driver and USB port which supports

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USB 1.1/2.0 to optimize the speed of data transfer. The requirement of an operating system is

the most important for the installation of DTBB because it cannot be open by using other

operating systems. The operating systems for running DTBB are Windows 2000®, Service

Pack 3 and Service Pack 4, Windows XP® (Home and Professional), Service Pack 1 and

Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista™. There are also two available drive letters between

physical drives and network shares.

The DTBB user manual also mentions how to get started to use this product. It guides

people from performing a driver installation. Besides the hardware installation, it also guides

the user through the step on initial setup to set up the password for data protection.

In the content of using DTBB, it instructs the user to login and browsing the DTBB on

the computer. The user manual also guides the user on how to shut down and safely remove

the DTBB correctly to prevent data loss.

To explore DTBB, the user guide shows the additional features available via the DT

BLACKBOX icon located in the System Tray of the window. There are several options,

included DT BLACKBOX Settings, Browse DT BLACKBOX, Format DT BLACKBOX,

Online Support, About DT BLACKBOX and Shut down DT BLACKBOX. There is also a

warning for secure storage, it mentions the precautions of the lockdown feature because it will

result in data loss.

Lastly, the user manual also gives some answers to frequently asked questions, which

the user may face during the use of DTBB. It had posted the most common frequently asked

questions for quick viewing and to solve the problem of users.

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Good points of user manual

By reading the Kingston DataTraveler Blackbox user manual, we could find some good

points on it, which provide the huge convenience to the users.

The first point was the simplicity of the user manual, it was designed as simple as

possible to guide users to use the product. It was applied to the content of the document and its

design, there was no extra or complex information, the sentences in the user manual was easy

to understand and straight to the point. Because the content which tightly packed with text and

graphics may make the user guide or manual daunting and unfriendly. This also avoids

customer who is timid about user manual call the support team for help, rather than trying to

solve the problem themselves. Moreover, the simplicity of the user manual had greatly

increased the chances of a user getting a good customer experience.

Other than that, the second good point was the photo description. The DTBB user

manual contains clear illustrations with annotating which quickly shows others how the product

works, so the users don’t have to waste their time to read the whole text. Recent research has

shown that when providing instructions with visual content, people absorb visual information

faster and perform tasks better.

On the other hand, include a table of contents also one of the good points of the DTBB

user manual. The table of contents is the important key of the user manual, it displays the

organization of the manual. The table contents will help to guide the reader throughout the user

manual and also helps readers find the answer to the questions or parts they are looking for. In

the DTBB table of contents, the contents divided into five parts, which is the system, getting

started, using DTBB, explore DTBB and FAQs.

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 Apart from that, a logical hierarchy and flow was also the good point of the DBTT user

manual. It contained a hierarchy of heading and subheadings to lets the user know what each

section will show them. The hierarchy also follows a logical flow that helps the user learn to

use the DBTT in most helpful ways. For instance, the DBTT user manual start at easy stages

first before further explore additional features.

On top of that, another good point of the DTBB user manual was the specific instruction

is provided. The user manual focusing on clarity of text and it always uses the same words to

describe a device, as for an example, the user manual always uses DTBB to describe the

Kingston DataTraveler Blackbox, instead of products or flash drive. The picture of the user

manual also shows the specific area only to lead users to focus on the instruction given.

Last but not least, the last good point was referable information. The DTBB user manual

had listed out the frequently asked questions to the users. There is a summary of common

problems that usually encountered by users, and the solution was given to help users find their

problems quickly. The user manual of DTBB also provides the online support website to access

more information about the product to ensure the questions of the user can be solved.

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Bad points of user manual

(Figure 1)

(Figure 2)

Based on the user manual above, there are also some bad points can be obtained. The

sentences which different form (bold and normal) are squeeze in one paragraph which look

untidy and may cause user uncomfortable during reading the user manual. (as in Figure 1).

Moreover, the warning part may not get too much of attention from user. The bolding

word is not attractive enough which may cause the user to miss the information during the

process of reading the user manual (as in Figure 1 and 2).

Besides, the user manual only prepared in a single language which is English. There

are different races in Malaysia such as Chinese, Malay, and Indian. Furthermore, the foreigner

such as Indonesian or Chinese as people in these countries may not so used to speak English

and master their English level for their daily life usage. This situation may cause them cannot

understand the user manual well which will make them cannot fully understand and use the

product.

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Suggested improvements for the user manual with visuals

(Figure 3)

(Figure 4)

According to figure above, company can make some improvement to the bad points

that have stated above. Company can separate the sentences into more paragraph or in point

from to make the sentences shorter and tidier without mix the different form of word in one

paragraph. Through this method, user will feel more comfortable during reading the user

manual. (as in Figure 3).

Next, instead of just bold the word “warning”, some icon which can represent “warning”

can be added. This method will get more attention from the user to read or take note on the

information to ensure a safety and smooth process during the product is used (as in Figure 4).

Lastly, the user manual can be prepared in more version in different languages such as

Malay, Mandarin, or even Tamil version. This can make the user in different races can

understand the user manual and product fully and easily.

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Conclusion

As the conclusion, the user manual provided by the Kingston can be consider as a

good quality and convenience user manual although there are some bad points. The good

points of the user manual are the simplicity of the user manual, description with photo or

picture provided, detailed and well explained table of, logical hierarchy and flow, provide a

specific instruction, and referable information. In the other hand, the bad points are untidy

and the long paragraph, the important information or the “warning” is not attractive enough

and the version of user manual is too less. There are some suggestions have been made to

make some improvement to the bad points of the user manual. Last but not least, perhaps the

company will take the advices and make some improvement on it.