This thesis examines literature and existing practices to guide empirical research on the effectiveness of instructional demonstrations that are used to learn software. Little is known about how to optimize these instructions because previous research seems to focus on the differences between animated and static formats, rather than looking at them as complementary visual representations. Research has also prioritized the assessment of using text, rather than pictorial means to convey operational information (i.e., physical actions to be carried out by the user). In order to explore these and other gaps, this thesis describes four studies and one illustrated review that aim to answer three questions: How have visual representations of operational information been explored in existing instructions and how do they influence the performance of users of software instructional demonstrations? How has interaction been explored in instructional demonstrations and how does it influence user's performance? How are animated and static software instructional demonstrations judged by users?