1. Developing Tasks
This slide deck was adapted by Caitlin Kelleher based on the original by Saul Greenberg. (Thank you Saul)

2. At this point…
You’ve done information gathering (interviews, contextual, inquiry, observation)
You’ve organized the results and identified opportunities
You’ve decided on the (grounded in data) problem you want to solve

3. Tasks You’ll next develop a set of tasks that capture:
The who, what, where, and why for your intended users.
As a whole, your tasks will represent
What problems you want your system to solve
The people and contexts you expect the system to support
Tasks are a tool that you can use to consider the designs you create.
Do my design do everything it needs to?
Is it supporting the needs of the kinds of users I expect?
Will it operate in the kinds of situations (technical, social, etc) that those users need?

4. Good Task Examples….
Say what the user wants to do but do not say how he/she would do it
no assumptions made about the interface
can be used to compare design alternatives in a fair way
2. Are very specific
says exactly what the user wants to do
specifies actual items the user would somehow want to input

5. Good Task Examples…. 3. Describe a complete job
forces designer to consider how interface features work together
contrasts how information input / output flows through the dialog
where does information come from?
where does it go?
what has to happen next?
Do not
create a list of simple things the system should do
present a sub-goal independent of other sub-goals

6. Good Task Examples… 4. Say who the users are
name names, if possible
says what they know
Why?
design success strongly influenced by what users know
can go back and ask them questions later
reflects real interests of real users
helps you find tasks that illustrate functionality in that person’s real work context

7. Good Task Examples… Are evaluated
Circulate descriptions to users, and rewrite if needed
ask users for
omissions
corrections
clarifications
suggestions
As a set, identifies a broad coverage of users and task types
the typical ‘expected’ user, typical routine tasks
the occasional but important user, infrequent but important tasks
the unusual user unexpected or odd tasks

8. MM Example 1
John is a 65 year old man who is looking to change his drinking behavior because it is causing a strain on his marriage. He’s not a particularly comfortable computer user; he still carries a flip phone and tries to limit his computer use to sparing . He has previously tried several programs designed for problem drinking, but none have worked for him. He would like to attend in-person meetings to meet other people who are trying to moderate their alcohol consumption. John lives in Kirkwood and hopes to be able to find a meeting with 10 miles of his home, but would consider going further if necessary.

9. MM Example 2
Jasmin is a professional mother in her thirties who has found MM to be very valuable in developing new strategies around her own drinking. While she feels in control of her own drinking these days, she finds helping others still struggling very rewarding. Currently, she is subscribed to several subgroups and answers messages. But, she recently was asked to serve as a moderator, which includes the job of selecting messages from her current subgroups that would benefit from answers from other subgroups. Today, there’s a message from a young engineer who has tried and failed several times to change his drinking behavior. He has just posted a message despairing that he’ll ever be able to lead a normal life. She thinks he could benefit from some responses outside of his immediate subcommunity.

10. MM Example 3
Frank is 26. He married his college sweetheart days after graduating from college. They both got jobs in their respective fields and bought a house in the suburbs. While they got along well in college, they have very different ideas about their new lives with jobs, which has led to a lot of friction. Frank started drinking in the evenings to take the edge off after fighting with his wife. Gradually, that transitioned into drinking as soon as he got home in anticipation of a fight. Finally, his drinking has started to negatively impact his job, too. He decided it was time to take action. He initially came to MM looking for ideas about how to scale back his drinking. The guidelines and drink tracker have helped to an extent, but he’d like to talk with some people who can relate to what he’s going through. Frank has joined the MM community and the newcomers group, but he’d like to find some other groups with people he can relate to. Ideally, Frank would like to be able to interact with the group on his phone, but doesn’t want his phone to buzz every time a new message comes in.