ABSTRACT
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Defining Task Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Task Analysis in this Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Considering Four Principles That Underlie
Task Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Task Analysis Is an Integral Part of a
Broader Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Task Analysis Includes Understanding
Users’ Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Considering Norman’s entire action
cycle as task analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Task Analysis Is Relevant at All Stages
of the Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Practical Reality Impinges on What We
Actually Do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Selling Task Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Dispelling the Myths That Lead to Resistance . . . . . . . . . . 37
We do market research;We do not need
task analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Task analysis is too time consuming
and costly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Using Other Opportunities to Sell Task Analysis . . . . . . . . 37
Making Task Analysis Part of the Standard
Development Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Planning for a Task Analysis
(Issues to Consider) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Background Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Getting Into the Project Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Getting Sign-off and Meeting Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Providing Useful and Usable Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Deciding What the Project Team Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Where is the product in its overall life cycle? . . . . . . . 39
How much time do you have to conduct
your task analysis? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
How broad or specialized is the user
population for the product? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
How widespread geographically, culturally,
and linguistically is the user population
for the product? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
How detailed must we specify the tasks? . . . . . . . . . . 39
Is this a special type of product for which
traditional task analysis may not be useful? . . . . . . . . 39
Deciding on an Appropriate Level
of Granularity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Deciding Where to Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Gathering Reusable Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Going to Different Users at Different Times . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Collecting Task Analysis Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Successful design comes from a marriage of users’ goals and (usually) new technologies. Successful design does not necessarily perpetuate users’ current ways of working, but it is built on a deep understanding of those ways and of how a new design will change them.
