Christmas has just come and gone. We have two young kids and I spent a good deal of time putting toys together. It was a fascinating and frustrating experience. Some of the toys were nearly thrown out of the window before they made it under the tree. It's astonishing how bad some of instructions were for some toys. The images were blurry, the text was confusing and the presentation was appalling. Then there was Lego, who seem to treat instructions as if they were a work of art. With bad documentation, not only are images and text often illegibly squeezed onto a single sheet of paper, but that black and white paper is crumpled in the bottom of the box. Here are the instructions for a Barbie dream house. Here are the instructions for a trampoline. Again, everything is black-and-white. The text is confusing and constantly refers to numbers that are referenced on other pages. Here are part of the instructions for an outdoor play set. This is an even better example of all the problems mentioned above:
Now let's see how Lego handles instructions. You can download thousands of examples from the Lego website. The full-color images are beautifully presented with clear, large images and numbers. Lego doesn't try to squeeze all of the instructions onto a single, crappy piece of black-and-white paper. Each step is given its own page. Lego isn't afraid to make instruction books that are 50+ pages long, if that's required. Here's an example from the Lego Ninja series: In fact, the images here don't do the instructions full justice. The real instructions are printed on high-quality, glossy paper. It feels like handling a small art catalog. Here's a page from the Empire State Building instructions: Here's an example from a cafe, aimed at girls: Notice there's no text on any of the pages. The illustrations are beautiful and clear enough to stand on their own. Anyone speaking any language could follow Lego's instructions. A 4-year old could follow these instruction.
I know because my daughter managed it over Christmas. Instead of saving money by creating crappy instructions on a single sheet of black-and-white paper, Lego have gone above and beyond. The quality of their instructions is central to how much our family enjoyed the Lego toys. What about our own instructions? If you're reading this, you're probably used to dealing with software documentation. Think about the software we use every day and present to our customers. How much of our software documentation looks like the first examples: badly-presented, heavy on confusing text and treated as an after-thought? How much better could our software be if we treated documentation as Lego does? How much more popular and more beloved could our software be if we treated documentation as central to the entire experience?Swooshable has an entire section dedicated to building instructions. One that contain the official LEGO sets with a reference to all the different websites that has the instructions for each model.
They also have a section for Non-Official sets building instructions./buildingsc...Finding free custom building instructions is difficult. /./They consistently update their site with incredibly impressive, custom built, LEGO creations (sorry, no instructions).Another website that wasn’t mentioned yet: LEGO MOCs (Custom LEGO Sets) with Building Instructions (rebrickable). Here you can find a ton of MOCS, the instructions for which you have to pay are clearly marked. and view their building instructions in Lego Digital Designer.Lego Builds InstructionsLego Creations InstructionsLego Instructions IdeasInstructions SuperLego Ideas For BoysLego Ideas To BuildLego Building IdeasSnoopy GamesSnoopy LegoForwardLEGO Building Instructions – Make Snoopy and his doghouse, and there is even a Woodstock too! Oh man, this might be our new favorite LEGO project! The boys have been arguing over who gets to display it in their room, so I solved that conflict by saying that it’s mine. Gresham and I were...
- 3 years ago Bricksburg, The Old West, and Cloud Cuckoo Land all have 3 Instruction Pages hidden throughout the world. Finding these will allow a Construction character to build at the platform in the world. This will also result in unlocking a Red Brick. These Instruction Pages cannot all be found at the start of the game, as some are hidden in spots that only certain characters can unveil. These characters are progressively unlocked while playing through the main story. The first and easiest Instruction Page to find is in the construction site. After entering through the gate, go to the left and there you will hear a character saying he forgot his drill. Near him there is a marking on the floor denoting that it can be broken with a drill. Use a Construction character to drill through the marking on the floor. The Instruction Page will be in the hole. The second Instruction Page can be found near Emmet's home. Facing Emmet's house, look at the right side of the town square. You will see a pink fence.
Break this fence and use it to build a surface for a female character to climb. Wall jump up to the roof. Here you can flip a switch and open a door so male characters can come up as well. (While up here you can also break the bench and rebuild the billboard, another side mission in Bricksburg. Also behind the fence on the right, there is a cat that needs to be returned to Mrs. Scratchen-Post). Jump down onto the yellow and white overhang. Then have Vitruvius throw his staff into the hole on the building to the left so a female character and jump across and grab on and make her way to a balcony. The Instruction Page will be there. The third Instruction Page can be found inside a restaurant near the ice cream truck. This cannot be accessed until either President Business or Lord Business is unlocked. Once either of them is, switch to this character and walk over near the construction site gate. Do not enter, but look to the right. You will need to destroy the dumpster by the camera post to build a platform, then use it to make President/Lord Business taller.
Once you have done this, walk back over to the restaurant and look to the right. There will be a large tree and on the ground there will be a marker. Walk over to it and press Circle/B to activate the switch. This will open the doors in the restaurant, allowing you to walk inside and grab the Instruction Page. (There is also a cat found here, which is needed for Mrs. Scratchen-Post's sidemission). The first Instruction Page is found near an aggressive horse found on the right as soon as you enter The Old West. Vitruvius is needed in order to get this, as other players see the horse and refuse to approach it. The Instruction Page is in the middle of the fenced area. The next Instruction Page is on the roof of the saloon. To get up there you will need a female character. Upon entering The Old West, go straight up to a building, that is the saloon. Then, head towards the building on the left. Climb the netting to get onto the balcony. Walk to the other side then jump and grab hold of the bar to work your way up to the roof.
From here, follow the coins and jump across the roof to the building straight ahead. Keep following the coins and jump to the building on the right. Here you will see a structure. Destroy this structure and walk into the rubble, the Instruction Page will be there. (Once up there you might as well continue to explore the building as a one of the Gold Thieves is hiding out in the building). The last Instruction Page in this world cannot be found until you unlock a character that can fire lasers, like Bad Cop or Superman. With an appropiate character, head towards the saloon. Then walk over to the right and you will see the sheriff's building. Next to it is a gold jail cell. Use a laser on the jail cell and knock down the door. Inside is the third Instruction Page. The first Instruction Page is hidden inside a building in the upper left part of the main cloud. Once you enter Cloud Cuckoo Land, head straight and slightly left. You will see a target on the second floor of the building between the silver door and rainbow stairs.
Throw something at this target to break the wall. Then, as a female character, use the bar to get up to the hole and collect the Instruction Page. The second Instruction Page is found through the silver door on the left. Using a character with explosives, destroy the door and head forward. On the first cloud, use a Master Builder on the green circle to put together a stair case. With a female character, walk up the stairs and across the tight rope and the Instruction Page will be in the middle of the room. If you have a character with flying abilities, you can also just fly directly up there and collect the Instruction Page. (A Red Brick can also be found here right next to the Instruction Page). The last Instruction Page requires a character that can shoot lasers. Upon entering Cloud Cuckoo Land, head up and towards the right until you see a gold door. Destroy it and proceed forward. Once you get to the next cloud, look at the tower. There is a hook for a character like Batman to latch onto and pull the tower down.