Methodology I: Task Analysis - Foundations for Designing User-Centered Systems - page 305

Things on the front page
of a university website

Things users look for
on the web site

Virtual tour Campus

addresses

Campus
slideshow

Picture of
president

List of faculty phone
numbers and emails

Alumni in
the news

Course lists
Campus police
phone number

Promotions
for alumni
events

Departments

Letter from
the president

Full name
of the
university

Faculty
publications

Parking
information

Welcome from
the president

Press
releases

Academic
calendar

Mascot
pictures

Campus map
by building name
How to obtain
transcripts

Statement of the
university's philosophy

Campus map
by location

Fig. 11.1 The potential mismatch between university department web sites built without a
thoughtful task analysis and what users want from university department web sites. Inspired by a
cartoon from xkcd.com

therefore important to continually check that the system still supports the user in
carrying out those tasks that have changed. When there are large numbers of tasks,
this can be both particularly daunting and important.
For example, university department web sites have a large number of tasks or
information content types that users look for. Figure 11.1 notes the mismatch that
has happened on some sites. The list for a department or college consists of over
100 types of information (Ritter et al. 2002 ). Sites can use that list to investigate
whether a site supports all the anticipated information needs of their users. Ritter
and colleagues' list has been used to make specific suggestions about how these
sites should be updated, including putting up more information, and distributing
the updating across members of the college because it is too much for a single
person to update.
Another use of TA is to find out more about how a task is done. When you
compare the way that people are supposed to perform tasks, and the way they
actually carry them out, there are often several noticeable differences. Creating a
TA can help you to understand what the user is doing because you have a better
understanding of the task, and often discussion based on a TA with users to update
the TA provides further insights into why they are behaving in a particular way, for
example, because of their particular knowledge or the context in which they
perform the task.