So You Want to Paint a Living Room?

What is task analysis you ask? What? You didn’t ask? Well I’m gonna tell you anyway. If you want to understand what task analysis is then think of Jane Goodall and her lifelong commitment to studying primates and their behaviors. She studied everything about them. Their social interactions, their family interactions, and their problem solving ability. UX Designers do the same thing, but instead of apes they study the everyday user. So kind of the same, just more evolved.

Task analysis — as copied from usability.gov — refers to the following: The process of learning about ordinary users by observing them in action to understand in detail how they perform their tasks and achieve their intended goals. Tasks analysis helps identify the tasks that your website and applications must support and can also help you refine or re-define your site’s navigation or search by determining the appropriate content scope.

See, apes but with better accommodations.

What does any of this have to do with painting a room? Well, one doesn’t just stand up and start painting their bathroom. There is a process. There are steps one has to go through to complete said task. I was charged with outlining this chore (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) and came up with what I believe to be the most important 8 steps in the DIY realm. First, the passion filled visual representation:

Since it’s hard to look at such beauty for too long I will beguile you with the written form of the steps:

1. Notice horribly outdated living room walls. Resolve to take action if it’s the last thing you ever do.
2. Contemplate colors for an excessive amount of time. End up choosing randomly and hoping for the best.
3. Determine amount of paint needed for living room.
4. Got to local hardware store. Get lost. Find new color. Buy supplies.
5. Clear room. Or maybe just push everything into the middle.
6. Request assistance. Offer compensation in non-monetary form.
7. Paint until good enough.
8. Regret decision. Drink until it looks like a masterpiece.

There you have it. Do with it as you will but please be responsible. In truth, no one should be entrusted with this kind of power. But what could possibly go wrong?