Quality-oriented design principles for assembly instructions for open-source hardware engineering kits

Assembly instructions play a key role in ensuring high-quality assembly and manufacturing results for open-source hardware machine kits (OSHM) . They form a bridge between users and manufacturers in terms of perceived quality and contribute to customer loyalty. They also enable a continuous improvement process through user feedback. Nevertheless, OSHM sometimes have qualitative deficiencies in their assembly instructions, such as insufficient or inconsistent descriptions or visualisations, which leads to avoidable errors and additional effort. This thesis examines how assembly instructions for OSHM can be validated using ten design principles. The aim is to ensure user requirements in the course of a quality-assured assembly process and the further open collaborative development of OSHM in this regard. This approach promotes trust and acceptance through reliable OSHM that is perceived as high quality. The analysis of four case studies and an evaluation of 21 surveys are synthesised against the background of a literature review on ten design principles. The principles are sorted according to requirement level and assigned to basic, performance and enthusiasm requirements. The design principles form an application-oriented design framework that supports developers in designing user-friendly instructions for the assembly and operation of OSHM.