What Is Task Analysis?

Task analysis helps observers better understand the user experience by breaking down a task and analysing the user's steps to complete it. Find out how task analysis works and why it’s an important step in the design process.

What Is Task Analysis?

Task analysis is the complete study and breakdown of how a user completes a task, including all physical and cognitive steps needed. It involves observing an individual to learn the knowledge, thought processes, and ability necessary to achieve a set goal.

For example, a website designer may perform a task analysis to see the actions and thinking a customer uses to purchase a product on their site. This helps the observer understand the procedures and challenges involved in the user experience, including the necessary physical ability or how a person’s previous experiences may impact their task completion. 

As an important step in the design thinking process, task analysis allows you to define the user’s problems and create a more efficient and effective task flow. It is helpful when testing a prototype or improving an existing design.

The purpose of task analysis is to understand better the user experience and potential pain points to solve problems and improve the overall user experience. Data gleaned from task analysis allows you to design a more effective system or better understand a current system.

Several task analysis methods are available, but two main types are cognitive task analysis and hierarchical task analysis.

Cognitive task analysis

Cognitive task analysis (CTA) is a methodology to examine the mental knowledge and thought processes involved in completing a task. This type of task analysis is ideal for tasks that require higher-level thinking or more advanced cognitive activity from the user. For example, you would use CTA for tasks requiring a user to solve a problem, decide, or memorise something.

Hierarchical task analysis

Hierarchical task analysis (HTA) helps you understand a user's needs to complete a task by breaking it into subtasks. This type of task analysis provides a clear visual of the various ways a user may complete a task so that you can better optimise the user experience.

How to perform a task analysis 

To conduct a task analysis, you’ll first identify the task you want to analyse and choose a technique to complete the task analysis. Take the following steps to perform a task analysis using a hierarchical format:

1. Identify the task and its end goal.

Consider why you’re analysing this task and what you want to learn from it. You may want to identify a pain point or understand the complexity of what the user needs to accomplish. 

2. Break the main task into subtasks.

Figure out how detailed you want your analysis to be and how many steps the user may take to complete the intended objective. It’s recommended to decompose a task into four to eight subtasks. This is also a good time to figure out how you will get your information by observing the user in action, interviewing them, or using already available data.

3. Analyse and visualise your task analysis.

While completing your analysis, draw a layered diagram that outlines the steps and decisions involved in completing the task. This may look like a flowchart that follows the entire objective from start to finish or an activity diagram that is more straightforward about the proper steps. Either way, it can help observers visualise the process for future use.

4. Add notes or written observations to your findings.

Compliment your diagram with a narrative on your discoveries or any written observations to help your analysis. For example, add notes on the user's challenges on a specific subtask or describe how they used their experiences to navigate a process. Treat this step as a story that describes the reasons behind the steps involved.

5. Review, validate, and share your analysis.

Get feedback on your analysis from team members, especially those who weren’t involved in the initial analysis. Allow them to check for any missteps, inconsistencies, or areas for improvement. This is a good time to observe any variations or irregularities that might skew your observations and subtasks.

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