Task Analysis in UX
Conducting a Task Analysis for painting a wall.
UX Design principles and techniques can be applied to almost everything that we do, and I it’s a great way to understand them.
So what is a Task Analysis? My first port of call is the good people at the Interaction Design Foundation, a great community with wealth of knowledge about UX Design.
Task analysis is a simple and effective process for laying out tasks from a user’s perspective
But why do we do it as UX Designers? I turn to the Interaction Design Foundation once more.
It gets you to the bottom of what the user will want to do and the simplest, most effective way of doing that
Task Analysis’ and similar techniques are often an important part of the UX Design process, as they help to us to break down tasks into smaller steps and gain a greater understanding of our user and the problems they face.
Case study: Painting a room.
Theory is great, but it’s time to dig a little deeper and apply it to a real-life example we can all relate to: painting a room.
Overview
I broke down the all of the steps which go into painting a room, focusing on the main details.
Steps
Step 1: Identifying the problem- the walls look tired
Step 2: Considering the solution- Wallpaper? Paint? New walls?
Step 3: Planning and research- Choosing tools and techniques; Brush? Spray gun? Roller?
Step 4: Checking with the landlord- Am I allowed to paint it?
Step 5: Buying materials- Where can I get supplies from? Do I have anything already?
Step 6: Checking and testing resources- Do we have everything to start?
Step 7: Pre-production- Sanding, taping and stirring paint
Step 8: Process- Painting
Step 9: Review- Did it cover evenly?
Step 10: Enjoy- Bask in the glory of a brightly painted room
All of these steps are outlined in a very average storyboard below:
Benefits
- Get an overview of all the different actions, thoughts and processes which occur in the accomplishment of simple tasks
- Understand and predict what users may (or may not) do in any given situation, to reach their goal
- Potential for understanding the problems the users face
- Identifying areas for improving the process
- To understand the data we get from researching and testing our products.
Limitations
- Overly linear and simplified
- Information is too basic
- You never really know how users will behave
- There are many ways to get to the same end goal
- The human element of anything is always unpredictable.
Overall
Conducting a Task Analysis certainly is beneficial for understanding the steps which occur in completing tasks, and highlighting pain points for the user.
As UX Designers, we just need to make sure we are aware of its limitations too and dig a little deeper.
