Instructions

I had to change the fuser on the printer at work the other day.  I didn't know what the fuser was.  It turns out that the fuser is an important component of the printer as a whole.  I still don't know why, but the printer won't work without it.  So I opened the fuser box in our supply closet and examined the instructions.  There was not a single word printed on the instructions.  There were, however, ten pictographic illustrations which led me through the process of replacing said fuser.  At first, I was baffled.  I thought, "What do I do?  I need words to tell me how to proceed!"  But I was wrong.  Not a single word was required.  I read the pictures, did as they said, and successfully replaced the part without a single bout of confusion.  Hooray for pictographs - the instructions of the future.  I googled instructional writing and found that it's well on its way to becoming an obsolete form of communication.  Why read about how to do something when you can simply mimic an easy to read series of graphics?  It really was much less stressful and time-consuming than I thought it would be.  As it turns out, the future is now.