HFE 451651 User and Task Analysis

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HFE 451/651User and Task Analysis

• From
• User and task analysis for interface design.
  Hackos Redish, 1998. New York John Wiley
  Sons.

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Topics

• Needs Analysis
• User Analysis
• Task Analysis
• Conceptual Evaluation Plan

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Needs Analysis

• Establish that a system (or product) is needed
  based on goals of organization and/or
  marketplace.
• Basic goals
• Purpose
• features
• Specify what will be required in the system and
  what would be nice to have.

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User Analysis

• Understanding the users
• (examples)
• Who are the users?
• What do the users want?
• What are the users goals?
• What are individual characteristics that may
  affect behavior with software or information
  designed?
• What do they know that helps them perform their
  tasks?
• What values to they bring to their job?
• Do they want a user interface that is fun, not
  boring?

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Understanding the users (cont.)

• Are they interested in saving money, saving time,
  becoming an expert, having an easy job to do?
• What is their prior experience with similar tools
  and interfaces?
• What jobs or tasks will the be performing? Under
  what conditions?

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User Analysis

• Users you may want to study include
• users who buy and use the software alone (e.g. at
  home)
• users who use it as part of the work they do
• groups of people who use software as part of a
  larger business process
• software administrators
• users who repair or troubleshoot
• users who install
• customers of the users

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User Analysis

• Some examples of data to collect
• Age, gender, physical differences,
• experience in job, educational level, background
  of training
• geographic location, wage differences, culture
  and nationalities
• language skills, terminology differences
• job level (eg. technicians vs engineers, or
  technicians vs doctors)
• Assumptions about the users (how to test these
  assumptions)
• Mental models users have
• Individual differences
• Motivational differences

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Task Analysis

• Complete description of tasks, subtasks, and
  methods for performing task.
• Analysis of users tasks - what they do and what
  they need to do.
• Function analysis - determining what functions
  the system as a whole (computer and user) will
  include
• Task-Function allocation - What will be allocated
  to the various components of the system (e.g.
  what will the user do, what will the system do)
• Requirements Analysis - What will be the
  requirements for the design.

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Task Analysis

• User Goals
• Relating Goals to tasks and actions
• Choices of task to meet goals
• What users do when they encounter problems

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Types of Task Analyses

• Work Flow Analysis
• What is the process by which they accomplish the
  work.
• This includes work that flows across people.
• Where are communication links?

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Types of Task Analyses

• Job Analysis
• Understanding what a person does in their
  particular job. What tasks do they perform?
• Frequency How often do they perform the tasks?
• Criticality How important are the tasks?
• Time How time consuming are the tasks?
• Difficulty How difficult are the tasks?
• Division of responsibility Do all people in the
  job perform this task?

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Techniques for Task Analysis

• Task Lists or Inventory
• Good for pre-design.
• What tasks do the user want to accomplish using
  the product? (Does not tell you how!)
• Example Email Program
• write message
• send message
• receive message
• read message
• save message
• etc..

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Techniques for Task Analysis

• Process analysis or task sequences
• Series of tasks that users are likely to do (or
  must do) in a certain order
• E.g. write a mail message precedes sending it.
• Example, operational sequence diagram

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Techniques for Task Analysis

• Task hierarchies
• Task can be decomposed into their sub-tasks

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Techniques for Task Analysis

• Procedural analysis
• Determine what a user does in performing a
  specific task. What decisions and actions must be
  made?
• Shows how users are currently using tools.

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Consider stages of users

• Novices
• Novices are goal and task oriented
• Novices do no want to learn, just do
• Advanced Beginners
• Focus on accomplishing task
• Impatient with learning concepts rather than
  performing tasks
• Randomly access tasks
• By adding new and more complex tasks begin to
  develop empirically based mental model

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Consider stages of users

• Competent performers
• Focus on accomplishing more complex tasks that
  require many coordinated actions
• Ability to plan how to perform a complex series
  of tasks to achieve a goal
• Willingness to learn how the task fits into a
  consistent mental model of the interface as a
  whole
• Interest in solving simple problems by applying a
  conceptual framework to diagnose and correct
  errors

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Consider stages of users

• Experts
• Focus on developing a comprehensive and
  consistent mental model of the product
• Ability to understand complex problems and find
  solutions
• Interest in learning about concepts and theories
  behind a product
• Interest in interacting with other experts