Task Analysis, Use Cases, and Scenarios September 24, 2018

Learning Objectives

• Differentiate between a cognitive and hierarchical task analysis
• Describe the purpose of task analysis
• Decompose larger tasks into smaller tasks
• Identify tasks to observe for a given project
• Identify what belongs in a use case and what doesn’t
• Write a simple use case for a task
• Differentiate a use case from a user flow
• Define a scenario
• Explain how a scenario is helpful for conducting usability testing

Resources

• Task Analysis on Usability.gov
• Use Cases on Usability.gov
• Scenarios on Usability.gov

Further Reading

• Task Analysis lecture notes from Matthias Rauterberg