Topic – Task Analysis
Objectives
By the end of this lesson you should be able to:
- Describe the term task analysis, and how it is used in the design of systems
- Describe the difference between a ‘task’ and a ‘goal’
- Describe hierarchical task analysis, and demonstrate a simple example in both textual and diagram form
- Define ‘task scenario’ and how they are used in design.
- Create a task scenario
- Use a task scenario to generate system requirements and user interface elements
Summary
Covers the basics of task analysis and how to perform a task analysis in text and diagram form. Defines task scenario and how scenarios are used in the design process. demonstrates use of task scenario’s in the generation of interfaces and system requirements.
Video
Reference Materials
What is Task Analysis?
https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/task-analysis.html
The concept of entity relationship and the ER diagram is used in Task Analysis, software engineering, and database analysis. This is something that you will need to know as you progress through the IT program. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity%E2%80%93relationship_model
Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA) is covered in sufficient depth on Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity%E2%80%93relationship_model
Task Scenarios are also used in the design of user interfaces and are very similar to use cases which are used extensively in software planning. An excellent overview of scenarios is at Uability.gov
https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/scenarios.html
Additional Information