Bamboo huts have been proposed as a low-cost housing solution in places like India, the Far East and South America. The assembly of these huts is a task for the end-user in an attempt to empower communities. Successful building is strongly linked to the end-user's ability to interpret and execute the assembly instructions correctly. This relies on the quality of the planning and presentation of the guiding instructions. Because the end-user is an audience with a broad spectrum of literacy, competences and capabilities, these instructions have to be carefully prepared and illustrated. In this work, the planning of the structure instructions was carried out with the overall aim to decrease complexity and increase effectiveness so that the assembly could be interpreted and executed correctly. Best practices for the presentation of the assembly instructions (i.e., creation of layout and diagrams) reported in the literature were observed. A diagnostic test to assess their suitability was conducted. This allowed the improvements in intelligibility and clarity in the interpretation of those assembly instructions.Attending to organizational-dynamic sequencing, cultural relevance, as well as skillset and technical background of the participants, the results provided insight into the way in which end-users dealt with ambiguity and intrinsic cognitive load. An optimized version of the instructions reflected the compiled preferences for sub-assemblies, action and colored diagrams with operations that decrease cognitive load (e.g., labelling, magnified details), and self-auditing steps. Concrete recommendations can be distilled from this case study and are reported for the benefit of the instructional designer.
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