Task Analyses

A task analysis is a raw list of activities that the final design will have to support. A task analysis can be simple or very complex, depending on the project. For example, imagine designing a new Web browser. It's easy to create a list of major tasks. Users will need to be able to:

• Go to pages by manually entering an address.

• Go to pages via a bookmark.

• Add a bookmark.

• Delete a bookmark.

• Organize bookmarks into folders.

• Print pages.

• Refresh a page.

• Return to the previous page.

• And so on, all the way down to rare and obscure tasks (for most users), such as viewing page source code and opening a JavaScript console.

This list of tasks can be assembled from several places: from business requirements ("Users need to be able to contact customer service"), design research ("Everyone we spoke to said that a self-destruct button was essential"), existing products ("Every mobile phone needs to be able to make phone calls"), and especially from brainstorming and scenarios ("What if we gave users the ability to customize that display?").

Task analyses can be documented in spreadsheets or word documents. They can also be mapped to wireframes (discussed later) to indicate what tasks are being performed on each page. Tasks can be categorized by function, level of access required (basic user tasks, registered user tasks, administrator tasks, and so on), or even by the persona performing the task.

Task analysis is especially useful as a check to see whether the design supports all the tasks required. Rare but important tasks often get overlooked, but with a task analysis, the designer can make sure the design meets all the requirements.