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What is a task analysis?

A task analysis complements user analysis. (See the article on Learn About Your Users.)

Task analysis means learning about your users’ goals—what they want to do at your Web site-and your users’ ways of working. Task analysis can also mean figuring out what more specific tasks users must do to meet those goals and what steps they must take to accomplish those tasks. Along with user and task analysis, we often do a third analysis: understanding users’ environments (physical, social, cultural, and technological environments).

Segmenting your target audiences by their main goals focuses your site’s development on those users’ tasks.

What can you learn from a task analysis?

According to JoAnn Hackos and Janice (Ginny) Redish, authors of User and Task Analysis for Interface Design, user and task analysis focuses on understanding:

• what users’ goals are; what they are trying to achieve
• what users actually do to achieve those goals
• what personal, social, and cultural characteristics the users bring to the tasks
• how users are influenced by their physical environment
• how users’ previous knowledge and experience influence how they think about their work and the workflow they follow to perform their tasks

How do you conduct a task analysis?

When we do a task analysis, we can work at several different levels (sometimes called “levels of granularity”). We can ask:

• What overall tasks are users trying to accomplish at our Web site? Examples of tasks might be:
  • find a nursing home near you for an elderly relative
  • get information about options for treatment for skin cancer
  • sign up to receive an email notice when a payment is due

We can also ask questions that help us understand the specific steps that people take or should take to do that task:

• How do people currently do that task? We can look at how people do the task:
  • off the Web
  • on our Web site now
  • on other Web sites where they do the same or similar tasks

• What’s the most efficient way to have people do that task at our Web site?
• How well does the most efficient way match the users’ logic—their ways of thinking about the task, their words, their ways of working?

What are the benefits of a task analysis?

A task analysis allows you to:

• discover what tasks your Web site must support
• determine the appropriate scope of content for your Web site
• decide what applications your Web site should include
• refine or redefine the navigation or search for your Web site to better support users’ goals—to make sure the site is efficient, effective, and satisfying to users
• build specific Web pages and Web applications that match users’ goals, tasks, and steps

Next steps

When you have learned about your users and done task analysis, you are ready to Develop Personas.

Before you begin to design a Web site, it is wise to review and evaluate what you have now. By reviewing what currently exists, you can identify what is working well and the areas that need improvement.

Ask these questions when evaluating your current Web site:

Does the Web site meet your organization’s objectives and your usability goals?

Review the site to see how well the site is currently meeting your organization’s objectives and the usability goals you have set for the site. If you have not set any organizational objectives, see the Questions to Ask at Kick-Off Meetings (PDF-33KB). If you have not set usability goals for your users’ typical scenarios, learn how to Set Measurable Usability Goals.

Is the site meeting the needs of your users?

Consider how well the site is fulfilling users’ goals by reviewing the types of users who visit your site and the reasons they come to the Web site. Gathering information from users is essential to understanding how well users can find information on your Web site, how efficiently they can use the functionality on the site, how well they understand your content, and how much they enjoy using your Web site. To gather information from users:

Review users’ emails and phone calls

• Review the emails that users send to the Web master (or other email addresses included on your site) to identify issues that users are struggling with.
• Write down the questions that users call your organization about. If no one is keeping track of these calls, find the person who answers calls and get that person to keep a log of callers’ questions in the callers’ words.
• If your Web site includes an option for users to post questions to the site, review the questions that users have sent. These questions tell you what users want to know.

Evaluate your Web logs and search logs

• Look at your Web logs to see how users are using the Web site. How many users go beyond the home page? Which pages of your site are the most popular? What items are users searching for on the site? What words are people using as they search?

Conduct an online survey

• Use a survey to ask users how they use the Web site. For example, you may want to ask users “What information were you looking for today?” and “Did you find it?” These types of questions help you learn how well people can use your site. Read more about Surveys (Online).

Conduct a usability test

• Test your site with representative users to see how well your site is meeting the needs of users. During the usability test, you’ll identify usability issues with your site, as well as benchmark your site. This benchmark study will not only allow you to ensure you do not repeat the same usability mistakes, it will also help you measure future improvements. Read more about usability testing.

Does the Web site comply with basic Web guidelines?

Also review the site to see how well it adheres to common Web standards and best practices. You may want to:

Conduct a heuristic evaluation.

• A heuristic evaluation is typically performed by one or more usability experts who review your goals as well as your users’ scenarios and identify potential usability issues on your site. Read more about Heuristic Evaluation.

Review the Research-Based Usability and Web Design Guidelines.

• The Research-Based Usability and Web Design Guidelines are based on the latest research in usability, human factors, cognitive psychology and other Web design sciences. The guidelines offer practical advice for improving the usability of your Web site.

Examine OMB policies.

• The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued a set of policies for all Federal public Web sites. Review the OMB policies.

The characteristics other than name and picture come from the data you gathered in learning about your users. For example, you may have quotes from interviews or surveys or usability testing.

Next steps

One of the most important keys in evaluating your current site is understanding your users. The article on Learn About Users introduces you to several ways to find out more about the people who come to your site, the people whom you want to come to your site, what they look for, whether they find it, and how they would organize the information on your site.

You may also want to start your Content Inventory and do that at the same time that you are learning more about your users.