Usability for the Web: Designing Web Sites That Work
A simple, time-efficient way to design, develop and improve your web sites.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Usability for the Web: Designing Web Sites That Work
Part III: Conceptual Design
Chapter List
- Chapter 4: Task Analysis
- Chapter 5: Information Architecture
OVEREVIEW
Once you've determined the initial requirements for your web site, you need a way to analyze and optimize the procedures your users will follow while using your site. This forms a crucial part of the specifications for the web site. From your requirements analysis, you should be able to build a profile of who your users are, what knowledge and abilities they come with, and the general goals you'd like them to be able to achieve while at your site. As a designer, you want to provide an efficient means for your users to achieve those goals. Task analysis is meant to specify how the information and functionality found in the requirements analysis will be used. In addition to codifying user procedures, task analysis can also be used as a design tool.
A task is the sequence of steps a user will follow to achieve a specific goal. Whether you're using web technologies to automate a company's processes or you're providing information about your grandmother's favorite cookie recipes, there is always a set of goals in mind and a set of tasks for achieving those goals, even if they are somewhat implicit. The purpose of this chapter is to provide you with some simple, practical techniques for analyzing the tasks that will make your site development more efficient and make the user experience dramatically simpler. We describe the components of a task analysis, how it can be used...
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