Comments on: The Task Analysis Grid

By: Todd Zaki Warfel

Todd Zaki Warfel — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:34:43 +0000

Actually Ellen, it’s not based on Indie’s work. We developed this grid long before Indie’s work. However, it could be a useful artifact that would work well with the stuff Indie has been working on. Oh, and as for her book, I highly recommend it.

By: Ellen

Ellen — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:11:01 +0000

A task analysis grid i believe is based on the work of Indie Young (co-founder of Adaptive Path) who uses a mental model and content model to articulate achieving user needs. She recently published about the approach which includes this tool, called Mental Models . See: http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/mental-models/

By: User and task analysis - or, how do I start writing anyway « just write click

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 03:57:58 +0000

[...] Task analysis grid using an Excel spreadsheet: http://toddwarfel.com/?p=16. [...]

By: Todd Warfel’s task analysis grid « serenblog

Todd Warfel’s task analysis grid « serenblog — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 08:31:26 +0000

[...] http://toddwarfel.com/?p=16 [...]

By: Todd Zaki Warfel

Todd Zaki Warfel — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:35:10 +0000

It kind of depends. Typically, we’ll do one grid per set of tasks. So, in the case you mention, one for checking voicemail, one for email, one for editing web pages.

This document is part of our research phase. So, these are typically developed in conjunction with the personas as they kind of rely on each other. In the case where one is developed before the other, we’ll go back in and evolve each of them.

By: tdellaringa

tdellaringa — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 19:34:01 +0000

Hey Todd, I love the idea you have put together here. Obviously by your comments you still use personas in conjunction with the grid as well.

How well does this work if you have say 5 segmented personas, in addition to 3-4 primary tasks? In your example, the problem or task is checking voicemail. It’s all pretty stable and succinct.

But what if you had 4 personas, and the system was not only checking voicemail, but sharing online photos, text messaging and checking e-mail as well. Would you do multiple grids, or could it all be set on one grid? Seems like that extends row might get a little jumbled, but I’m not sure, having a hard time seeing it. (Maybe you have an example using multiple personas?)

I’m assuming you are doing this in early stages of planning, and that the personas would come first, along with any problem statements, task definition and use cases - or do you have a different order?

Thanks so much for sharing this, if I can get my head around how exactly to work this, I’d love to include it in our process.

Tom

By: Todd Zaki Warfel

Todd Zaki Warfel — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 15:09:28 +0000

In the case where we’ve had multiple personas, there’s a row titled Extends To. The scenarios are written based on one of the personas and the Extends To row includes the other personas/groups that that particular task and sub-tasks extends to.

As you may expect, not all tasks extend to all personas.

By: -challis

-challis — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 01:27:10 +0000

Todd, how does this work in a situation where you have several user groups, profiles, personas, etc. with a variety of tasks?

By: A new design document « Leapfirst

A new design document « Leapfirst — Fri, 11 May 2007 22:46:02 +0000

[...] new design document The Task Analysis Grid is a very interesting way to document requirements and design decisions. It can communicate [...]

By: Todd Zaki Warfel

Todd Zaki Warfel — Fri, 04 May 2007 22:05:25 +0000

Thanks, Jason. I’d love to see your version in Rails when you get it running.