6.831 User Interface Design & Implementation
Fall 2004

GR1: Task Analysis

Due Wednesday, September 29, 2004, in class

In this group assignment, you will start the design of your term project by doing the following:

User analysis. Identify the characteristics of your user population, as we discussed in lecture. If you have multiple user classes, identify each one.
Task analysis. Determine the tasks of the problem you've chosen, analyze their characteristics, and answer the general questions about tasks we asked in lecture. Think about other questions you should ask that might be relevant to your particular domain. You should find and analyze at least 6 tasks. If you can't find that many tasks in your problem, try drilling down to more specific tasks, and consider exceptional and emergency tasks. If you still can't, then the problem may be too small to serve as a good project.

To gather information for the user and task analysis, you should interview 3 representative users who face your problem (at least 1 from each user class, if you have multiple user classes). If possible, observe them dealing with the problem in their real work environment. When you write up your analysis, don't provide a narrative of these sessions. Instead, offer your conclusions, and justify them when you can by referring to observations. For example, "grocery shoppers may be distracted by children; one mother was repeatedly harrassed by her son to buy some candy." Also, don't identify the users you interviewed by name, unless you get their permission to do so.

What to Hand In

Your report should be around 4 pages, handed in as hardcopy. Include the following parts:

Title. Give your project a title, if you haven't already.
Problem. Briefly restate your problem.
Users. Describe each of your user classes.
Tasks. Describe the 6 (or more) tasks you have identified. Every task should have a goal, preconditions, subtasks (if any), and exceptions (what can go wrong). Also include a paragraph describing other relevant features of the task, such as time constraints or frequency of use.