Task Analysis and Usability

Background

A key issue in usability is that of understanding users, and a key part of user-centred design is that of describing the tasks that the users expect to be able to accomplish using the software you design [1]. Because of the origins of usability as a discipline, a lot of the terminology used when discussing this issue comes from fields such as task analysis. This briefing paper defines some of these terms and explains the relationship between usability and task analysis.

What Is Task Analysis?

Within the usability and human-computer interaction communities, the term is generally used to describe study of the way people perform tasks - that is, the way in which a task is currently performed in real-life situations. Task analysis does not describe the optimal or ideal procedure for solving a problem. It simply describes the way in which the problem is currently solved.

Gathering Data For Task Analysis

Since the intent of task analysis is description of an existing system, the ideal starting point is data gathered from direct observation. In some cases, this is carried out in a controlled situation such as a usability laboratory. In others, it is more appropriate to carry out the observation "in the field" - in a real-life context. These may yield very different results!

Observational data can be gathered on the basis of set exercises, combined with the "think-aloud" technique, in which subjects are asked to describe their actions and their reasoning as they work through the exercise. Alternatively, observations can be taken by simply observing subjects in the workplace as they go through a usual day's activities. The advantage of this latter method is principally that the observer influences events as little as possible, but the corresponding disadvantage is that the observations are likely to take longer to conclude.

Unfortunately, there are significant drawbacks of direct observation, principally cost and time constraints. For this reason, task analysis is sometimes carried out using secondary sources such as manuals and guidebooks. This, too, has drawbacks - such sources often provide an idealised or unrealistic description of the task.

A third possibility is conducting interviews - experts, themselves very familiar with a task, can easily answer questions about that task. While this can be a useful way of solving unanswered questions quickly, experts are not always capable of precisely explaining their own actions as they can be too familiar with the problem domain, meaning that they are not aware on a conscious level of the steps involved in the task.

Analysing Observations

There are several methods of analysing observational data, such as knowledge-based analysis, procedural [2] or hierarchical task analysis, goal decomposition (the separation of each goal, or step, into its component elements) and entity-relationship based analysis. Data can also be visualised by charting or display as a network. Some methods are better suited to certain types of task - e.g. highly parallel tasks are difficult to describe using hierarchical task analysis (HTA). On the other hand, this method is easy for non-experts to learn and use. Each answers a slightly different question - for example, HTA describes the knowledge and abilities required to complete a task, while procedural task analysis describes the steps required to complete a task.

A simple procedural task analysis is completed as follows:

1. Choose the appropriate procedure to complete the task that is being analysed.
2. Determine and write down each step in that procedure; break down each step as far as possible.
3. Complete every step of the procedure.
4. Check that the procedure gave the correct result.

These steps can be charted as a flowchart for a clear and easy to read visual representation.

Conclusions

Task analysis provides a helpful toolkit for understanding everyday processes and for describing how human beings solve problems. It is not appropriate to perform detailed task analysis in every situation, due to cost and complexity concerns. However, the results of a task analysis can usefully inform design or pinpoint usability problems, particularly differences between the system designer's assumptions and the users' "mental models" - ways of looking at - the task to be performed.

References

1. Task Analysis and Human-Computer Interaction, Crystal & Ellington,
   <http://www.ils.unc.edu/~acrystal/AMCIS04_crystal_ellington_final.pdf>
2. Procedural Task Analysis,
   <http://classweb.gmu.edu/ndabbagh/Resources/Resources2/procedural_analysis.htm>