User Analysis & Task Analysis

Chapter 2
User Analysis

Study users &

• To design an effective system, it is necessary to know the tasks
answers to the following 3 questions
Analysis
• Who are the users?
Design
• What are the tasks? prototype

• What is the environment in which the system will Usability test

operate?

Program
Example:

Task: reading news on apps

User: Elderly vs teenager

Environment: Inside MRT/LRT, day/night time

User Types

Novice users: Users who attempt to use a system for the first time

Novice users are generally unfamiliar with the system but may well understand
the goals to be accomplished

E.g.1: a new lecturer who wants to upload notes, tut Q and assignment Q to
Google Classroom.

E.g.2: a person who attempts to buy a train ticket online for the first time
Knowledgeable intermittent users:

Irregular users of many systems

• They have a stable knowledge of the task, but have difficulty in remembering
details of system operations because of not using systems regularly. ( e.g. Using
e-filling for income tax once a year)

Expert/Frequent users:

Users who are very familiar with the systems and tasks

• They are well versed in computer terminologies and syntax

Design for Novice Users

1)All initiatives should come from the computer

• The designer of a system should consider the novice user to be like a shy visitor who needs
prompting.

Examples:

Date : _________ (use dd/mm/yy)

Name: __________ (last, first, middle)

Tel : __________ (area code - phone no)

• For novice users, system should be designed to tell them what to do and they simply respond
to instructions
2) Each required input should be brief

• Designers should NOT assume that novice users are proficient keyboard
operators.

3)No special training should be necessary

• All info needed to operate the system should be provided by the system
• The system should make it clear what has to be done
4)All system messages should be clear and unambiguous
5)User decisions should be made from a small
set of options

• Novice users need to make choices from a

small number of options available since it
makes them feel that the system is limited in
size and it avoids feelings of being
overwhelmed by the enormity of the system

6) There should be sufficient feedback help.

Design for Knowledgeable Intermittent Users

1) System should be consistent

2) System should provide good help facilities and good documentation

Design For Expert Users

1) Feedback should be brief

2) Command sequences should be offered in abbreviated and meningful form,

e.g. copy command in Unix: cp

3) Where possible, keyboard shortcuts should be provided

Understanding Users :Requirements

Type of requirements:

Functional Requirements

• What the system should do.E.g. save Historical data

Non-functional Requirements

• Usability goals, response time...

• Non-functional requirements describe how the system works, while functional
requirements describe what the system should do
How to Understand
Users?
Gathering Data for Requirements

1) Interviews

• Users of a product should be the main focus of the design effort. They are the
people who are personally utilizing the product to accomplish a goal (not their
managers or support team).

• Interviewing both current and potential users illuminates the effect that
experience with the current version of a product may have on how the user
behaves and thinks about things.
•
• Information we are interested in learning from users includes:
• The context of how the product (or analogous system, if no current product
exists) fits into their lives or workflow: when, why, and how the product is or will
be used

• Domain knowledge from a user perspective: What do users need to know to

do their jobs?

• Goals and motivations for using their product

• Mental model: how users think about their jobs and activities, as well as what
expectations users have about the product

• Problems and frustrations with current products (or an analogous system if no

current product exists)
2) Focus groups

• is representative users, usually

chosen to match previously
identified demographic segments
of the target market, are gathered
together in a room and asked a
structured set of questions and
provided a structured set of
choices.
•
3) Card Sorting

• is a technique to understand how users organize information and concepts.

• performed by asking users to sort a deck of cards, each containing a piece of
functionality or information related to the product or Web site.

• to uncover one aspect of a user’s mental model.

3) Questionnaires

• Advantage:
• a usability questionnaire gives you feedback from the point of view of the
user.

• If the questionnaire is reliable, and you have used it according to the

instructions, then this feedback is a trustworthy sample of what you get from
your whole user population.

• disadvantage :
• Need time and affort in setting realiable questionaire.

*reliablity is the ability of the questionnaire to give the same results when filled out by like-
minded people in similar circumstances.
 Check boxes

Liker scale
4) Observation

• Most people are incapable of accurately assessing their own behaviours

especially when they are removed from the context of their activities.

• Observational methods involve an investigator viewing users as they work in a

field study, and taking notes on the activity that takes place.

• Direct : investigator is actually present during the task.

• Indirect: the task is viewed by some other ways such as through use of a video
recorder.

• It is also useful for studying currently executed tasks and processes.

• It should be noted that observation can be obtrusive and subjects may alter
their behaviour due to the presence of an observer.
Diary

web traffic analytics

After Data Gathering,
What’s Next?
User needs analysis

• Users can be classified according to their

• Demographics (e.g. age, gender)
• Occupational experience (e.g. job title, years of experience)
• Educational level
• Experience, etc.
• Why model the user?
• They are powerful tools for representing complex
structures and relationships for the purpose of
better understanding, discussing, or visualizing
them.

• Without models, we are left to make sense of

unstructured, raw data, without the benefit of any
organizing principle.

• Personas are models for users that represent their

relationships with physical world, environment and
product.
http://fakecrow.com/free-persona-template/
Persona

• Personas are user models that are represented as specific, individual human
beings. They are not actual people but are synthesized directly from
observations of real people.

• Personas must be based on real-world observation.

• Data that can support and supplement the creation of personas include:
• Interviews
• Market research data such as focus groups and surveys
• Market-segmentation models
• Data gathered from literature reviews and previous studies
 Persona are NOT Persona are

What people tell you about what you observe

themselves

About customer likes or about what frustrate or satisfy

dislikes a customer

A job description or a About skills, attitude,

documentary about a person motivation, environment and
goals
job description
presenting behaviour patterns
If you try to design a car that pleases every possible driver, you end up with a
car with every possible feature, but that pleases nobody.
Types of Personas

Marketing personas:

• focus on demographic information, buying motivations and concerns,

shopping or buying preferences, marketing message, media habits.

• Marketing personas are good for determining what types of customers will be
receptive to certain products or messages, or for evaluating potential ROI of a
product.
Proto—personas:

used when there is no money or time to create true research—based personas –

they are based on secondary research. ( mostly based on assumptions)

Design personas:

• focus on user goals, current behaviour, and pain points as opposed to their
buying or media preferences and behaviours.

• They are based on field research and real people.

Creating Persona

• Bring persona to life by adding following minimum details:

• First and last name
• Picture
• Demographics (age, location, gender, job title, etc.
• etc..
Identify behaviour variables .

• Focus on the following variable types:

• Activities – What user does; frequency and volume
• Attitudes – How user thinks about product domain
and technology

• Motivations/Goals – Why user is engaged in

product domain

• Skills – User’s capabilities related to product

domain and technology

• Pain points/ frustrations

Persona examples
After User Analysis,
What’s Next?
After persona…..

• Uses personas to create stories that point to design.

• Developing stories or scenarios as a means of imagining user interactions.
• using those scenarios to define requirements.
• Using these requirements in turn to design the product.
Scenario

• use scenario to represent the task.

• focuses on describing how users accomplish tasks. It consists of an
environmental setting and includes agents or actors (persona).

• A persona provides a tangible representation of the user to act as a believable

agent in the setting of a scenario

• Scenario content and context are derived from information gathered during the
Research phase and analyzed during the Modelling phase.

• A scenario is an informal narrative description of a specific interaction, usually

with a real-world setting.
Scenario Example 1

“The Thomson family enjoy outdoor activity holidays and want to go sailing.
While out shopping they call at the travel agents in their local town to start
exploring the possibilities ... The travel organizer is located in a quiet corner of
the agents’ office, where there are comfortable seats and play things for young
children. They all gather around the organizer and enter their initial set of
requirements—a sailing holiday for four novices. The stand-alone console is
designed so that all members of the family can interact easily and comfortably
with it. The system’s initial suggestion is that they should consider a flotilla
holiday, where several novice crews go sailing together and provide mutual
support for first-time sailors…” (Preece, Rogers & Sharp, 2011)
Scenario Example 2

Brian would like to see the new film “Moments of Significance” and wants to
invite Alison, but he knows she doesn’t like “arty” films. He decides to take a
look at it to see if she would like it and so connects to one of the movie
sharing networks. He uses his work machine as it has a higher bandwidth
connection, but feels a bit guilty. He knows he will be getting an illegal copy of
the film, but decides it is OK as he is intending to go to the cinema to watch it.
After it downloads to his machine he takes out his new personal movie player.
He presses the menu button and on the small LCD screen he scrolls using the
arrow keys to bluetooth connect and presses the select button. On his
computer the movie download program now has an icon showing that it has
recognised a compatible device and he drags the icon of the film over the icon
for the player. . . .”
After Scenario,
What’s Next?
Environment Analysis

• scenarios describe the broad context in which usage patterns and include
environmental considerations.

• should focus on high-level actions from the user’s perspective. It is important

to map out the big picture first so that we can systematically identify user
requirements. Only then will we be able to design appropriate interactions and
interfaces.
• Environment analysis address questions such as the following:
• In what setting (environment) will the product be used?
(indoor,outdoor,public, private,noisy,quiet…)

• Will it be used for extended amounts of time?

• Is the persona frequently interrupted?
• Are there multiple users on a single workstation or device?
• With what other products will it be used?
•
After Environment Analysis,
What’s Next?
Task Analysis

• Task analysis is used mainly to investigate an existing situation

• Focus on important activities (tasks)
• What are people trying to achieve?
• How are they going about it?
• most popular modelling technique is Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA)
• focus on physical and observable actions.
Hierarchical Task Analysis

• Involves breaking a task down into subtasks, then sub-sub-tasks and so on.
• HTA focuses on physical and observable actions, and includes looking at
actions not related to software or an interaction device

• Start with a user goal which is examined and the main tasks for achieving it
are identified
1. Identify the task to be analysed.

2. Break this down into subtasks. These subtasks should be specified in terms of
objectives and, between them, should cover the whole area of interest.

3. Draw the subtasks as a layered diagram ensuring that it is complete.

4. Decide upon the level of detail into which to decompose.

5. Continue the decomposition process, ensuring that the decompositions and

numbering are consistent.
HTA in list form:
Why we need HTA?
Uses of Task Analysis in HCI

• To understand the way user perform their CURRENT JOB with an existing system (manual
or computerised system)

• By understanding what the user has been doing, a new system can then be arranged in a
way that is compatible with the user's accustomed behaviours i.e. to make the new
system compatible with what the user already does

• Advantages:
• Skill learned from the old system can be transferred to the new system
• User need not alter his/her approach significantly when using the new system
• In addition, task analysis can also be used for producing documentations & training
materials
Any other analysis tools?
Other Analysis Tools

• Empathy mapping
• Customer journey mapping
• Experience mapping
• Service blueprinting
• Job-To-Be-Done
• etc…
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-mapping-cheat-sheet/
 Customer journey mapping

https://www.brightvessel.com/customer-journey-map-2018/
See more eye catching examples on Pintrest
Thank you