TA Flashcards
What is task analysis?
The study of the way people perform their jobs and achieve their intended goals.
Gathers both declarative & procedural knowledge
What is the aim of task analysis?
To determine what they do, what things they use, and what they must know.
What is the purpose of task analysis?
To uWu HH:
- [U]nderstand user goals
- [W]hat experiences (personal, social, cultural) user brings to the tasks
- [U]nderstand what users do to actually achieve goals
- [H]ow are the users influenced by the physical environment
- [H]ow previous knowledge and experience influence them
What is declarative knowledge?
Objects & relationships
What is procedural knowledge?
Task sequences, goals, subgoals
How to gather data for task analysis?
- Use various appropriate methods (observations, interviews)
- Collect unstructured lists of words & actions
- Organize the tasks and subtasks
What are the 3 approaches to task analysis?
- Task decomposition
- Knowledge-based techniques
- Entity/object based analysis
What is task decomposition?
Aims to describe actions users do, structure them within a task/subtask hierarchy and describe the orders of the subtasks.
What is the most common form of task decomposition?
Hierarchical Task Analysis - decomposing a high-level task into subtasks, focus on TASKS
What is the knowledge-based technique?
To understand and organize the knowledge required for a task, focus on OBJECTS and ACTIONS, uses taxonomies (task-descriptive hierarchy).
What are taxonomies?
Groupings based on the purpose
What is the difference between declarative and procedural knowledge?
Declarative focuses on objects and relationships while procedural focuses on task sequences, goals and subgoals.
What is the difference between HTA and KBT?
HTA focuses on breaking tasks into subtasks, KBT focuses on knowledge, objects & actions
