Week 8

Question 1

What is Task Analysis

Answer 1

The process of learning about users by observing them in action.

Understand how users perform their tasks and achieve their intended goals.

Question 1

What does Task Analysis result in?

Answer 1

Task analysis establishes a foundation of existing practices to build new requirements or design new tasks.

Question 2

What is Task Analysis NOT used for?

Answer 2

envisioning new products

Question 3

What are the 3 approaches to task analysis?

Answer 3

1. Task decomposition
2. Knowledge-Based Techniques
3. Entity or object-based analysis

Question 4

What is the most popular technique for Task Analysis?

Answer 4

HTA - Hierarchical Task Analysis

Question 5

What are the steps of HTA? (3)

Answer 5

1. Decompose the task into actions and describe them
2. Structure them within a task subtask hierarchy
3. Describe the order of subtasks

Question 6

What are the pros of HTA? (3)

Answer 6

1. Allows to compare alternative designs based on planned tasks and subtasks objectively
2. Provides a good understanding of the interaction at whichever level of abstraction is appropriate.
3. Support design reuse at different levels of abstraction.

Question 7

What are the cons of HTA? (2)

Answer 7

1. Real tasks are very complex and TA can be scary if not done well.
2. Limited in the kind of tasks it can model.