Human Computer

Interaction
(HCI)
Lecture 3

Adapted from materials from: Albrecht Schmidt (https://hci-lecture.org/). Luigi De Russis, Alberto Monge Roffarello, and Tommaso Calò (https://elite.polito.it/teaching/02jsk-hci/info)
Lecture Outline
• Task Analysis
• Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA)
• Task analysis and Design of Functionality
• The Role of Task Analysis in Development
• Scenarios
• Personas
Task Analysis
• Task Analysis is the study of the way people perform their
activities
• Task analysis is the systematic study of how users complete tasks
to achieve their goals. This knowledge ensures products and
services are designed to efficiently and appropriately support
those goals.
• Task analysis emerged out of instructional design and HF and
ergonomics.
• Task analysis is crucial for UX, because a design that solves the wrong
problem will fail, no matter how good its UI.
Task Analysis
• In task analysis, the focus is on one user, his/her goal, and how
he/she carries out tasks in order to achieve it.
• Thus, even though the name “task analysis” may suggest that the
analysis is of just one task, task analysis may address multiple
tasks, all in service of the same goal.
 Task Analysis
• Aim is to determine:
• what they do (steps)
• what things they use (artifacts)
• how well they succeed (goals, pain points)
• Helps to shape the interaction design
• Frequent action should be simple and quick to carry out
• Infrequent action may take longer
• Menu structure should reflect this
• Problem – if many (all) actions occur with very similar relative
frequency…
What is a Task?
«A task is a goal together with some ordered set of actions.» (Benyon)

Goal • A state of the application domain that a work system (user + technology) wishes to achieve.
• Specified at particular levels of abstraction.

• A structured set of activities required, used, or believed to be necessary by an agent (human,

Task machine) to achieve a goal using a particular technology.

• The task is broken down into more and more detailed levels of description until it is defined
in terms of actions.

Action
• An action is a task that has no problem solving associated with it and which does not include
any control structure.
• Actions are ‘simple tasks’.
Task Analysis Example
• A task refers to any activity that is usually observable and has a start and an
end point.
• Example: if the goal is to set up a retirement fund, then the user might have
to search for good deals, speak to a financial advisor, and fill in an application
form, all of which are tasks.
• It’s important not to confuse goals with tasks. For instance, a user’s goal isn’t
to fill in a form. Rather, a user might complete a form to register for a service
they want to use.

User User
User forms Goal
completes completes
a goal Achieved
task 1 task 2
What do you learn with Task Analysis?
• What your users’ goals can be; what they are trying to achieve
• What users actually do to achieve those goals
• What experiences (personal, social, and cultural) 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
• The workflow they follow to perform their tasks
• The pain points they experience to perform the tasks
Why is it useful?
• Task analysis is the process of learning about ordinary users by
observing them in action to understand in detail how they
perform their tasks and achieve their intended goals
• Tasks analysis helps in:
• Identifying the tasks that your application must support
• Refining or re-defining your app’s navigation or search
• Application requirements gathering
• Developing your content strategy and app structure
• The initial stages of Prototyping
• Performing usability testing
Where does it fit?

Documentation Observation Interviews

• Extract information
• Sort and classify
Task Analysis • Iterate and refine

Manuals and Requirements and Detailed

Documentation system design Interface Design

• Conceptual Manuals (from KBA) • Focus on system usage rather than • Taxonomies à menu layout
• Procedural (how-to) Manuals system features • Objects/actions à interface objects
(from HTA) • Suggests candidates for automation • Task frequency à default choices
• Unconvers user’s conceptual model
Characteristics of Task Analysis
• The task-analysis process can be viewed as two discrete stages:
• Stage 1: Gather information on goals and tasks by observing and
speaking with users and/or subject-matter experts.

• Stage 2: Analyze the tasks performed to achieve goals to

understand the overall number of tasks and subtasks, their
sequence, their hierarchy, and their complexity. The analyst
typically produces diagrams to document this analysis.
Stage 1:Gather Information
• A combination of methods is used to learn about user goals and
tasks. They include:
• Contextual inquiry: The task analyst visits the user onsite and conducts a
semi-structured interview to understand the user’s role, typical
activities, and the various tools and processes used and followed.
• Then the analyst watches the user work. After a period of observation,
the user is asked questions about what the analyst observed.
Stage 1:Gather Information
• A combination of methods is used to learn about user goals and
tasks. They include:
• Interviews using the critical incident technique: Users are asked to
recall critical incidents, and the interviewer asks many follow-up
questions to gather specific details about what happened. The stories
provide detail on the tasks performed, the user’s goals, and where
problems lie.

• Record keeping: Users are asked to keep records or diary entries of the
tasks they perform over a certain period of time. Additionally, tracking
software can be used for monitoring user activity.
Stage 1:Gather Information
• A combination of methods is used to learn about user goals and
tasks. They include:
• Activity sampling: Users are watched or recorded for a certain period of
time in order to document which tasks are being performed, as well as
their duration and frequency.

• Simulations: The task analyst walks through the steps that a user might
take using a given system.
Stage 2: Analyze Tasks
• In stage 2, the task analyst will structure the observations by
certain attributes like order, hierarchy, frequency, or even
cognitive demands, to analyze the complexity of the process users
follow in order to achieve their goals.
• The result of this analysis is often a graphical representation called
a task-analysis diagram.
• Different types of diagrams can be produced, such as standard
flowcharts or operational-sequence diagrams. However, the most
commonly known and used in task analysis is the hierarchical task-
analysis diagram (HTA).
Stage 2: Analyze Tasks
Example
The figure shows an example of an HTA
for the goal of creating a digital copy of
a physical letter using a new home
scanner.

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/task-analysis/
Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA)
• A hierarchy is an organization of elements that, according to
prerequisite relationships, describes the path of experiences a
learner must take to achieve any single behavior that appears
higher in the hierarchy”. (Seels & Glasgow, 1990, p. 94)
• HTA is the procedure of disintegrating tasks into subtasks that
could be analyzed using the logical sequence for execution
• A set of plans describing in what order and under what conditions
subtasks are performed
• This would help in achieving the goal in the best possible way
Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA)
• An HTA diagram starts with a goal and scenario and highlights the major
tasks to be completed in order to achieve it.
• In human factors (HF), these tasks are referred to as ‘operations’.
• Each of the tasks in the top layer can be broken down into subtasks. The number of
levels of subtasks depends on the complexity of the process and how granular the
analyst wants the analysis to be.
• Not all users accomplish goals in the same way.
• For example, a novice user might perform more tasks than an expert user — the
latter might skip certain steps. The HTA enables these differences to be captured
through ‘plans’.
• A plan specifies, at each level, what the order of the steps is, and which
steps might be undertaken when or by whom
Example HTA: How To Clean a House
1. To clean the house • A hierarchy of tasks and sub-
1. Get the vacuum cleaner out
2. Fix the appropriate attachments tasks
3. Clean the rooms • Indentation and numbering
1. Clean the hall
2. Clean the living rooms
denote the levels
3. Clean the bedrooms
4. Empty the dust bags
• A set of plans describing in
5. Put the vacuum cleaner and what order and under what
attachments away conditions subtasks are
Plan 0: do 1-2-3-5 in that order. When performed
the dust bag gets full do 4
Plan 1: do any of 3.1, 3.2 or 3.3 in any • Plans are labeled by the task they
order. Depending on which rooms need describe
cleaning
Techniques for Task Analysis
• Task decomposition: Splitting tasks into sub-tasks and their
ordering
• Knowledge-based techniques: Any information and instructions
that users need to know, and how that knowledge is organized
• Entity-relationship-based analysis: identify actors, objects,
relationships and their actions
• Ethnography: Observation of users’ behavior in the use context
• Protocol analysis: Observation and documentation of actions of
the user. This is achieved by authenticating the user’s thinking.
The user is made to think aloud so that the user’s mental logic can
be understood.
Task analysis and Design of
Functionality
Design of Functionality
• The successful design of functionality requires a task analysis early
enough in the system design to enable the developers to create a
system that effectively supports the user's task.
• The user's task is not just to interact with the computer, but to get a job
done. Thus understanding the user's task involves understanding the
user's task domain and the user's larger job goals
• The goal of the design of functionality is to choose functions that
are both useful in the user's task, and which together with a good
user interface, results in a system that is usable, being easy to
learn and easy to use.
The Role of Task Analysis in Development
• Requirements development:
• Task analysis should be conducted before developing the system requirements to
guide the choice and design of the system functionality.
• The goal of task analysis at this point is to find out what the user needs to be able to
accomplish, so that the functionality of the system can be designed so that the user
can accomplish the required tasks easily.
• User Interface design:
• Needed during interface design to effectively design and evaluate the user interface
• A task analysis will help identify the portions of the UI that are most important for
the user's tasks
• Follow-up after installation:
• can be conducted to compare systems or identify potential problems or
improvements
Collecting Task Data
• Task analysis requires information about the user's situation and
activities, but simply collecting data about the user's task is not
necessarily a task analysis.
• In a task analysis, the goal is to understand the properties of the
user task that can be used to specify the design of a system
• This requires synthesis and interpretation beyond the data.
• Techniques include:
• Observation, “think aloud” evaluation, walkthrough and talk through, …
• Questionnaires, focus group, design probe, user study, …
• Interviews, diaries, …
• Interface surveys, …
How to prepare for Task Analysis
• To ensure an effective task analysis process, it's essential to gather focused
data during user research.
• Five types of data are suggested during this phase:
• Trigger: What initiates the task for the user?

• Desired Outcome: How will users know they have successfully completed the task?

• Base Knowledge: What will the users be expected to know when starting the task?

• Required Knowledge: What do users already know before starting the task?

• Artifacts: What resources or tools will users require during the task?
How to Conduct a Task Analysis
• Identify the Task You Need to Analyze
• Pick a persona and scenario for your user research and repeat the task
analysis process for each of them.
• What is that user's goal and motivation to achieve said goal?
• Break Down This Goal into Smaller Subtasks
• A good rule of thumb is to aim for 4–8 subtasks, any more than this may
indicate that the goal is too broad or abstract.
• Draw a Layered Task Diagram of Each Subtask
• You can use any notation you like for the diagram since there is no real
standard here.
How to Conduct a Task Analysis
• Write the Story
• Ensure you accompany your diagram with a narrative that focuses on the
whys.
• Validate Your Analysis
• Review the analysis with someone who wasn’t involved in the
breakdown but knows the tasks well enough to check for consistency.

• Note: Conduct a parallel task analysis with more than one person to
undertake the process simultaneously so that you can compare and
merge outputs into a final deliverable.
Scenarios
Possible sequences of actions for reaching user goals
Scenario
• A user scenario simply describes a basic story of an action or goal
that a user wants to accomplish.
• Scenarios are stories for design: rich stories of interaction
• Description of how the user engages the interactive system to
solve a specific task/goal.
• The idea is to work out the: who, what, when, where, why and how of
the user’s scenario.
• Formats:
• Written summary, Use Case
• Graphical sketches (Storyboard)
• Flowcharts, Transition Diagram...
Uses of User Scenarios
• Used to describe both what currently happens within a system or
more typically the intended behavior within a system.
• Useful when defining usability testing. They enable testers to
focus on the key tasks within a system.
• Scenarios help you examine how your design will work.
• Steve Jobs, the Apple founder, said; “Design is not what just what it looks
and feels like. Design is how it works.”
Level of Details In Scenarios
• Stories • Concrete Scenarios
• From needfinding • Used for envisioning ideas and
• Used for understanding what people evaluation
do and what they want • One possible solution to a Conceptual
Scenario (may try many alternatives)
• Conceptual (abstract) Scenarios
• Shows how technologies are used in
• Used for generating ideas and the user context
specifying requirements
• Key design features are included
• Abstracts tasks from stories
• No reference to technology • Use Cases
• May lead to different concrete • Used for specification and
scenarios implementation (→ software
engineering)
Scenario Examples

• Examples from: http://www.uiaccess.com/accessucd/scenarios_eg.html

Personas
Personas
• Personas are fictional characters, which you create based upon
your research in order to represent the different user types that
might use your service, product, site, or brand in a similar way
• The purpose of personas is to create reliable and realistic
representations of your key audience segments for reference.
• Creating personas helps the designer to understand users’ needs,
experiences, behaviors and goals.
• “Personas provide a powerful tool for communicating about
different types of users and their needs, then deciding which users
are the most important to target in the design of form and
behavior”
• “Personas represent groups of users”
Cooper, A., Reimann, R., & Cronin, D. (2007). About face 3: the essentials of interaction design. John Wiley & Sons. p.80ff
Personas
• In UX design, we use personas to build empathy with target users
and to focus on their world.
• Personas should be created from observations about real users,
and never invented out of your assumptions about your users.
• Because you must map your users’ needs to your design’s
functionality, you must first clearly define both the needs and the
users.
• We divide users into manageable groups and represent each with a
typical embodiment, a persona.
Uses of Personas
• Personas help to focus decisions surrounding design project by adding a
layer of real-world consideration to the conversation.
• They also offer a quick and inexpensive way to test and prioritize those
features throughout the development process.
• Help represent a major user group for the project.
• Avoid self-referential design
• Express and focus on the major needs and expectations of the most
important user groups.
• Help give a clear picture of the user's expectations and how they're likely to
use the site.
• Aid in uncovering universal features and functionality.
Personas Example for Car Design
§ Personas and goals • Average
§ Alesandro (fast and fun) A car that is:
§ Marge (safe, comfortable) • fast, fun, safe, comfortable, for
§ Dale (big loads, reliable) big loads, and reliable

§ Results in 3 designs that differ, e.g. • The car that fulfils all
§ Porsche requirements, will not fulfil
§ City SUV them well…
§ Pick-up

Example from Cooper, A., Reimann, R., & Cronin, D. (2007). About face 3: the essentials of interaction design. John Wiley & Sons. p.80ff
Persona Example
• For an app that helps students budget, “Amy” represents 18-year-
old female who must adapt to life in the university.
• Through Amy, we see how our app helps these users in their day-
to-day activities. We imagine Amy has just started banking online,
lives in a hostel and works weekends. Her goal is to save money.
• Her scenario: she stretches GH70 to cover her week’s groceries.
Persona Example
Questions to ask during Persona Development
Objective Questions
Define the • What is the purpose of the product?
Purpose/Vision • What are the goals of the design?

Describe the • What is the age/gender of your person?

user • What is the highest level of education this person has received?
• How much work experience does the person have?
• What is the person’s professional background?
• Why do they need the product? (User needs, interests, and goals)
• When and where will users access the product? (User environment and context)
• What technological devices does your person use on a regular basis?
• What software and/or applications does your person use on a regular basis?

User • What is your person motivated by?

motivation • What are they looking for?
• What is your person looking to do?
• What are his needs?

US government design website: https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/personas.html

Elements of a Persona
• Personas generally include the following key pieces of
information:
• Persona Group (i.e. web manager)
• Fictional name
• Job titles and major responsibilities
• Demographics such as age, education, ethnicity, and family status
• The goals and tasks they are trying to complete using the site
• Their physical, social, and technological environment
• A quote that sums up what matters most to the persona as it relates to
the design
• Casual pictures representing that user group
References
• https://www.nngroup.com/articles/task-analysis/
• Hackos, J. A. T., & Redish, J. (1998). User and task analysis for interface
design. New York: Wiley
• Kirwan, B. (Ed.), Ainsworth, L. (Ed.). (1992). A guide to task analysis. London:
CRC Press, https://doi.org/10.1201/b16826