Task Analysis For Painting a Room

In Task Analysis Mapping, you observe users to find out their motivations, their goals, how they do things, their processes, etc. In this exercise, the seemingly simple process of preparing for and painting an apartment (which, really, is never as simple as it sounds), is outlined. Additionally, backup plan that might potentially be needed due to unexpected hurdles are included.

I started with the oft-overlooked step of actually deciding that something had to be done about those horrific walls, asap, and reaching a consensus among those living there. This is a necessary but frequently never reached step. Next, you have to decide what to do. Acknowledging that you’re not the only ones that have a say in the matter, thus needing to include the landlord in the decision, follows this. If the landlord says that you’re not allowed to paint, the process is halted there. If he gives the go-ahead but refuses to cover costs, you need to gather funds from the roommates (who, in this particular plan, turn out to be less than helpful in the actual painting process!). Requiring supplies, you go purchase them with your newly acquired funds. You then set to work on the actual painting steps.

Painting can be complicated. You don’t want to just slap it around all over the place, so you have to protect everything in the room. Remove what you can, tape the edges of the room, cover the carpet and what furniture you can’t remove. Then you can paint. While it’s drying, it’s always a good idea, unless you’re wealthy and can afford to buy extras of all supplies, to clean everything. You’ll almost always need a second coat of paint to cover whatever hideousness was there to begin with. You’ll then get the edges that aren’t so easily touched by the paint roller. Once everything is dry, clean up is necessary, unless your decorating scheme involves high amounts of paint-splattered plastic! Verify everything is completely dry, bring everything back into the room, and you’re good! Completing such a task is generally celebrated, in my experience, by pizza. Since this exercise was to show what people would actually do in these circumstances, I included it as a step.