Lecture Notes:
Introduction to Task Analysis
Freda Salatino
What Makes an Interface Usable?
We’ve already explored guidelines for designing usable interfaces. To re-quote Theo Mandel, a good UI:
•	places users in control
•	reduces users’ memory load
•	makes the interface consistent

We’ve also found that good UI...
•	reflects work flows and metaphors that are familiar or comfortable to the user
•	support the users’ learning styles
How Do We Know What’s Usable?
Everyone talks about user-centered design, but nobody does anything about it.
(Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration.)

In order to leverage users’ pre-existing knowledge and build an interaction that mimicks the kind of work users do right now, designers need to physically get together with users.

This user-designer interaction is called user and task analysis.
What is Task Analysis?
Task analysis is the process of learning about users by observing them in action.

Task analysis is not the same as:
•	holding focus groups that take users out of their usual environment and away from their work
•	talking with expert users
•	talking with managers of other users
Task analysis focuses on understanding how users perform their tasks today.  This includes:
•	what the  users’ goals are
•	what they actually do to achieve those goals
•	personal characteristics users bring to their tasks
•	interaction between users and their work environment
•	how experience and habit influence influence their current task methodology
•	what users value most with regard to completing this task
Task Analysis vs. Usability Testing
Usability testing can happen as early as “proof of concept” phase -- the earliest part of the design cycle. 
However, it more commonly happens after the underlying functionality of the product has already been specified.
The problem with this is that late-cycle activities are far less likely to influence the direction of the interface design.
Task analysis needs to happen in the pre-design stage. 

This enables you to create inexpensive design models and test them with users before design has gone too far. 

It also ensures that the underlying structure of the software promotes the efficient interaction of users and interface objects.
Why Do Task Analysis?
(after Hackos and Redish, User and Task Analysis for Interface Design)
Companies pay for poor design by:
•	decreased productivity
•	increased maintenance costs (development, support, redevelopment)
•	decreased sales due to poor word of mouth

Customers pay for poor design when employees find new products difficult to learn. Productivity suffers at the outset, and may continue to suffer if employees settle on poor “workarounds.”
Why Isn’t Everyone Doing This?
•	The Developer As Super-user Fallacy
•	Heavy reliance on focus groups, user groups, surveys
•	Not enough time in the schedule/money in the budget
Thinking About The User
•	How do your users think about their relationship to their work? Are they part of a rigidly-defined user community, with titles that reflect skill level or responsibility, or are they part of a broad user community without hierarchy?
•	What is their skill level? 
•	How specialized are they?
•	How much do they know about functions that come earlier or later in the workflow?
•	Is the task they’re doing for business or pleasure?
•	How often will they use what you’re developing?
•	Do they have experience doing similar jobs or tasks?
•	What tools do they already know how to use? 
•	How well do they read?
•	How do they learn? Do they like taking risks, and trying new things, or do they prefer to be shown? 
•	Are the users also consumers of the task product?
•	Are the users the same people who will write the check to purchase the product?
Thinking About The Task
•	Is this task part of a larger process? If so, what is it?
•	How did the users learn to perform the tasks they do on their jobs?
•	How long have they been doing these tasks?
•	Have the tasks changed over time?
•	Do your users perform many varied tasks in a typical day, or do they perform the same few tasks over and over again?
•	Do your users teach others how to perform the same tasks? Do they supervise anyone else’s work?
•	If your users have considerable experience, is there anyone you can observe in the organization who is new to the task?
•	Who does everyone go to for help when something goes wrong?
Thinking About The Environment
What aspects of the working environment will influence how people will use your product and interact with its user assistance?
•	Physical (space, ability to spread out, noise, light, heat/cold, access to equipment)
•	Social (productivity issues, collaborator or individual contributor, hierarchy, interaction between workers and supervisors, interaction between users and customers)
•	Cultural (including your own inherent cultural biases!)

…all this information is used to build a preliminary matrix of user/task information, and to unearth your underlying assumptions about the users and their culture.
Be careful not to build a stereotype! Don’t forget about individual differences in personality, culture, physical characteristics, and motivation. 

	NOTE:
These are the same things you need to think about when you’re planning a suite of manuals, online help, tutorials, or web site!