What it’s about

User and Task Analysis for Interface Design helps you design a great user interface by focusing on the first step in the process—getting out to see and understand your users, the work they do, and the environments in which they work.

Whether you are developing products for employees of your company, for client companies, or for consumers, you’ll find the techniques in User and Task Analysis for Interface Design to be useful and usable. You’ll learn

• why understanding users, their tasks, and their environments is critical to successful products
• how to arrange to visit and observe users at their work or in their homes
• what to plan for and how to prepare and set up site visits
• what to look for so you’ll get useful information
• what questions to ask and what questions to avoid
• how to listen to what users are really telling you

This very practical guide not only helps you collect the data you need, it helps you make sense of what you find and turn useful data into usable designs. You’ll learn

• a variety of techniques for reporting and using what you’ve learned
• how to move from data to design
• ways of creating paper prototypes of interface designs
• how to conduct usability tests with your prototypes to see if you’re on the right track

User and Task Analysis for Interface Design includes numerous examples and stories of design successes and challenges for products in many different situations. The examples and stories—and the techniques—will help you build hardware, software, documentation, and training that makes both your company and your users successful and happy.

Contents

Table of Contents

Preface

Introducing User and Task Analysis for Interface Design

Understanding The Context Of User And Task Analysis

Thinking About Users

Thinking About Tasks

Thinking About the Users’ Environment

Making the Business Case for Site Visits

Getting Ready For Site Visits

Selecting Techniques

Setting Up Site Visits

Preparing for the Site Visits

Conducting the Site Visits

Conducting the Site Visit – Honing Your Observation Skills

Conducting the Site Visit – Honing Your Interviewing Skills

Making The Transition From Analysis To Design

Analyzing and Presenting the Data You Have Collected

Working toward the Interface Design

Prototyping the Interface Design

User and Task Analysis for Documentation and Training

Bibliography

Appendices

Template For A Site Visit Plan

Resources

Guidelines For User-Interface Design

Index