Task Design - Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Easy Way to Define and Refine User Interfaces - page 109

Step 7: Reality-Check Your Tasks
Sometimes product teams lack a clear understanding of how and why users will use the interface.
Although in an ideal world we'd have this information, sometimes we don't and we have to guess.
Creating tasks from made-up user goals isn't inherently evil as long as you don't confuse them with
reality. Perform a " reality check " by asking users at the end of the task if it's something they'd actually
do and/or care about. If they say no, modify the task or omit it. Otherwise, you risk getting
meaningless—or even misleading—feedback.
From the Field: When the Reality Check Bounces—A Cautionary Tale
I worked on a medical project where we tested a software prototype with radiologists. We were
having a pretty high success rate with task completion. The development team was very happy
with the way things were going, but I had an uneasy feeling about the results. I couldn't pin down
why; it was just my subjective sense of how the users were responding.
In one of the last tests, the test participant completed the task without any problem but didn't
really seem satisfied and was not terribly responsive to the follow-up questions. I finally asked
him if this was how he would want to do the work described in the task. Well, the flood gates
opened. "Oh no," he said, and proceeded to give a very clear explanation of what he'd actually
like to do and why.
Fortunately, the development team was observing the test. It was clear to everyone at that point
that the task was fundamentally flawed because real users would never do it the way we'd
envisioned. This was a very important finding and we wished we'd learned it earlier.
Contributed by Cay Lodine
If you're really uncertain about the user goal that a task is based on, you might want to do the reality
check before you use the task. Perhaps the people in your company who have contact with users can
tell you if the task bears any resemblance to the reality they've seen. Maybe they can even put you in
touch with some users so you can ask them yourself.
The process of task design can open up a whole new world of questions about your users and what
they do. But don't be discouraged if you feel like you're raising questions faster than you can answer
them—this is actually a good sign because it indicates that you've begun to think in a user-centered
way.
Just like designing a usable interface, creating good tasks is a complex and iterative process. The
internal walkthroughs described in the next chapter will help you refine your tasks as well as create your
interface.