Task Analysis
Task analysis is a way of analyzing the tasks by breaking them down into hierarchical or temporal components. One of the key benefits of task analysis is an in-depth understanding of all the steps a user needs to go through to fulfill a goal.
Timing
Task analysis is a key part of the Assessment phase, helping to understand how end users use the product and the tasks that they need to accomplish and the parameters around those tasks.
Methodology
While task analysis can be based on many types of user research and testing, it is most often uncovered through observation coupled with feedback from users or stakeholders.
Benefits
- Gives developers a realistic idea of how users actually complete tasks.
- Can be as granularly or as high level as necessary.
- Forces product designers and developers to think in terms of specific actions instead of just high level goals.
Duration
Developing and analyzing the key tasks will take 1 - 2 weeks depending on the methods used to gather user data and the granularity of the data required.
Deliverables
Generally, task analysis output can be delivered in the form of a hierarchical chart or a tree. Additionally, the process outcomes can be documented any way in which tasks and subtasks can be organized in order of importance or frequency etc. and the relationships and dependencies between tasks can be shown. Flowcharts and mind mapping diagrams also work well.