Paper Prototyping

Chapter 6 Task Design

Task design is one of the most important aspects of usability testing. You don’t just watch users do whatever they want with the interface; you create specific tasks that cover what you want to learn. A good task is like a spotlight that illuminates your interface, showing you the parts that work well and the issues that get in users’ way. A good task provides reliable data about key issues so that you get the most from your usability study. But a poor task can mask problems or even turn up false ones. For example, if you ask users to do something that they would never do in real life and they fail, it’s difficult to tell whether the interface really has a problem or if you’ve created an artificial one.

As important as task ...