Obfuscated automobile offspring-constraint procedures

A study of installation instructions for child car seats finds that they're written to a 10th grade reading level, far too high for the 50% of U.S. adults who function at no higher than 8th grade levels.

A spokesman said that car seats are incorrectly installed but he doesn't know "if that's because the seats are hard to install, the instructions are difficult. or parents just aren't reading them."

It's interesting that simplifying the design and installation of car seats is acknowledged as a good idea, but is rejected as being too costly. Instead, just use simpler words in the instructions. The things that aren't being read, remember? (Thanks to Rob Domaschuk on Techwr-l for the pointer.)

Posted: March 4, 2003 link to this item, Tweet this item, respond to this item