Task Design - Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Easy Way to Define and Refine User Interfaces - page 95

Step 1: List User Goals

If your interface works flawlessly but doesn't do anything that users care about, all your hard work will
be for naught. So start by making a list of goals and accomplishments that are important to the user
profile you've chosen for this usability study. What are people using your interface to do? What is
important to them? How does your product make their life better? Pay attention to things that users do
frequently—if you're developing an online brokerage and users can't execute a stock trade, you're sunk.
Also consider goals that are infrequent but really important—if users can't use your backup software to
restore a file, it doesn't matter how easy the backups were to do.

While attempting to list user accomplishments, some product teams realize that they really don't know
what their users do. This is not the end of the world, but it indicates the need for research into users
and their needs, which is beyond the scope of this topic. (But not, fortunately, beyond the scope of
other topics in the References section.)

Even if you aren't sure what your users' goals are, you can probably make some educated guesses.
Another idea is to seek out people in your company who have contact with users (for example,
salespeople, trainers, customer service representatives) and get their input. Just keep in mind that it's
especially important to reality-check what you come up with, as I describe later.

Functionality versus Goals

When you're used to thinking about functionality, it can be hard to switch your mind-set to think about
the users' goals. You may find yourself listing functionality. When this happens, I keep asking the
product team, "Why is that important?" until I hear an answer that contains a user goal. [ 1 ] The user's
goal is often broader than the function the team started with. For example, someone may initially say
that a user goal is to buy a stock—the why questions help them realize that the user's true goal is a
well-funded retirement (or perhaps the excitement of gambling). Table 6.1 shows more examples for a
hypothetical online job database.

Table 6.1: Functionality versus User Goals for a Job Database

Functionality Why Is This Important? Rephrased in Terms of User

Goal

Register and upload
resume

Person wants to find a new
or better job. But having a
resume online is just one
step toward this goal.

Decide whether this service would
be useful to me in finding a new
job. If it's not going to be worth my
time, I won't bother uploading my
resume.

Search by geographic
area

Commute time is important;
many job-seekers don't
want to relocate.

Find all the suitable job openings
within a reasonable commute from
my home so that I don't waste my
life driving to and from work.

Sign up for daily email
notification

In a tight job market, many
job postings are filled
quickly.

How can I find out about new job
openings before the other guy does
so that I can contact the company
first?

Navigate to
supplemental articles
(resume writing,
interviewing)

Person wants to increase
chances of finding a good
job.

I have an interview next Monday. I
haven't interviewed for a while—are
there particular things I should or
shouldn't do?

[ 1 ] I call this the small-child tactic. Kids have an infinite capacity for asking why. Ironic that part of being
a successful consultant involves behaving like a small child.