What kind of learner are you? Have you ever stopped and given it any thought?

There are three main types of learning methods:

• Auditory learning is a learning style in which a person learns through listening
• Kinaesthetic learning (or tactile learning) is a learning style in which a person learns through doing
• Visual learning is a learning style in which a learner utilises graphs, charts, maps and diagrams

Me, I’m definitely a visual learner – show me a YouTube video tutorial and I can quickly acquire new Photoshop skills. If I start getting error messages with the website, a quick look on Google and I can work out what’s wrong and try to fix it. I feel much happier getting a recipe book off the shelf rather than winging it and throwing ingredients together.

I have an entire board on Pinterest dedicated to infographics. Everything from Microsoft Excel short-cuts to social media tips to kitchen weight & measure conversions.

Visual manuals can be something as simple as the instruction leaflet that comes with your IKEA flatpack wardrobe to something as complicated as the safety handbook for using the Large Hadron Collider. They can take take physical form that you hold in your hand or PDF files stored online or on a computer or other device. The common factor is that they’re intended to guide you through a process or task in a logical, methodical way, removing confusion from what might at first seem a complicated or even stressful task.

When something goes wrong on an aeroplane flight for example, the pilots don’t just start pressing buttons at random, they reach for check-lists and manuals to troubleshoot. This allows them to stay calm even when the dangers and potential for disaster are very real indeed. And, if you think of something common to even more of the population, driving on the roads. Think where we’d be without the Highway Code – it would be mayhem. It’s a clear system of instructions – facts, rules and symbols – enabling us all to navigate the roads efficiently and safely. Countries without these systems and accompanying manuals have far greater rates of accidents, injury and deaths.

We all know someone (calling no names!) who thinks they can work out how to set up the home network / programme the Sky+ box / work the SatNav without even a cursory glance at the instructions. Nine times out of ten this ends in tears, gnashing of teeth and/or tearing out of hair!

Call me weird, but I love getting all the tools & parts I need set out neatly on a table or on the floor, getting the illustrated manuals out and having a good look at the instructions, following them to the letter and getting that feeling of satisfaction when I get to the end without a hitch, cross word or expletive!

An instruction booklet with clear illustrations is just what I need if I’m doing any kind of construction projects, car maintenance or DIY around the house. Other people will require them in the workplace – they allow standardisation of a product or service, no matter which employee undertakes the operation. They create safe working environments too – and also allow people who are new to a job or organisation to get on with tasks quickly and independently.

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