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Task analysis refers to a family of techniques for describing various aspects of how people work. This can include procedural analysis, job analysis, workflow analysis, and error analysis.

Procedural analysis is a set of techniques to analyze the procedures people perform for an individual task. Job analysis is the set of all tasks a person performs as part o a job or to achieve some overall goals.

Workflow analysis examines the flow of information and control that is necessary to complete a process that may include multiple people and multiple tasks. Error analysis determines where, when, and under what circumstances errors will occur.

The most crucial component of task analysis is gaining a deep understanding of the goals people are trying to achieve.

You can apply various task analytical techniques within your web site development process to clarify and formalize the information from requirements gathering, and to design a process within your web site that allows people to efficiently achieve their goals.

To illustrate how a task analysis might be used, consider the flowchart in which maps out a sequence of screens a user might go through while purchasing a stuffed giraffe. Each thumbnail represents a screen in the buying process.

The arrowed lines connecting the screens on the left represent a normal sequence of events.

For instance, the user starts at the home page, goes to the Products page, goes to the Giraffe page, completes the billing information, verifies that he or she really wants to make the purchase, and receives a confirmation by the system that the stuffed giraffe has been ordered.

The lettered lines on the right side of the figure represent possible optimizations that can be found through a task analysis.

For example, if the task analysis revealed that a significant number of users came to the site to buy giraffes, the company might place a giraffe link on the home page that would take users directly to the Giraffe page (line A).

This could save users a significant amount of time by bypassing the Products page. As indicated by line B, the company could also place a Buy Giraffe button on the home page that would take users directly to the Billing page, bypassing two unnecessary screens.

If the company had customer billing and shipping information stored from a previous visit, it could also bypass the Billing page, saving customers even more time (line C). Likewise, there are other optimizations that could occur within the process, such as placing Buy links on the Products page to bypass individual product page (line D).

In addition, there may be ways to eliminate screens, perhaps by combining the purchase confirmation with another page, thus saving the user even more time and effort.

There are many different optimizations that might be made, and making the process explicit through a task analysis allows designers to make rational choices regarding them.
Task analysis can help improve the consistency and coherence of the procedures required your web site.

Because it makes explicit the procedural knowledge expected from your uses, it also clarifies learning requirements and can provide the basis for training materials.

Furthermore, since the procedures are clearly spelled out, a task analysis can be used to provide a context-based help system for your users.

Task analysis is critical to providing a system that is efficient to use and easy to learn while not exceeding human limitations. In addition, the high-level goals specified in the task analysis make explicit the functionality that you building into the system. Thus, there is little confusion about the intended purpose of the site.

Task analysis is used throughout the design process because it acts as a road map for the entire design team. In each portion of the design, the task analysis is used as a guide to answer the question.

Does this design support the task? For example, an information architecture is only useful if it supports the task. The same goes for writing and graphic design. No stage of design can be done in a vacuum.

Likewise, when performing quality assurance and user testing, the task analysis tells the team what to focus on, how important each element is, and how to determine whether the overall design is successful.

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