A Guide To Task Analysis


Book Description

This work shows readers how to target task analysis TA resources effectively over the life cycle of a project from conceptual design Through To Systems Operation, Noting The Role Of TA In Safety And Quality assurance, minimizing operator error,




Figuring Things Out


Book Description

"Figuring Things Out" is for any human resources development specialist who wants to boost the achievement potential of employees and companies.




Cognitive Task Analysis


Book Description

Cognitive task analysis is a broad area consisting of tools and techniques for describing the knowledge and strategies required for task performance. Cognitive task analysis has implications for the development of expert systems, training and instructional design, expert decision making and policymaking. It has been applied in a wide range of settings, with different purposes, for instance: specifying user requirements in system design or specifying training requirements in training needs analysis. The topics to be covered by this work include: general approaches to cognitive task analysis, system design, instruction, and cognitive task analysis for teams. The work settings to which the tools and techniques described in this work have been applied include: 911 dispatching, faultfinding on board naval ships, design aircraft, and various support systems. The editors' goal in this book is to present in a single source a comprehensive, in-depth introduction to the field of cognitive task analysis. They have attempted to include as many examples as possible in the book, making it highly suitable for those wishing to undertake a cognitive task analysis themselves. The book also contains a historical introduction to the field and an annotated bibliography, making it an excellent guide to additional resources.




Working Minds


Book Description

How to collect data about cognitive processes and events, how to analyze CTA findings, and how to communicate them effectively: a handbook for managers, trainers, systems analysts, market researchers, health professionals, and others. Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) helps researchers understand how cognitive skills and strategies make it possible for people to act effectively and get things done. CTA can yield information people need—employers faced with personnel issues, market researchers who want to understand the thought processes of consumers, trainers and others who design instructional systems, health care professionals who want to apply lessons learned from errors and accidents, systems analysts developing user specifications, and many other professionals. CTA can show what makes the workplace work—and what keeps it from working as well as it might. Working Minds is a true handbook, offering a set of tools for doing CTA: methods for collecting data about cognitive processes and events, analyzing them, and communicating them effectively. It covers both the "why" and the "how" of CTA methods, providing examples, guidance, and stories from the authors' own experiences as CTA practitioners. Because effective use of CTA depends on some conceptual grounding in cognitive theory and research—on knowing what a cognitive perspective can offer—the book also offers an overview of current research on cognition. The book provides detailed guidance for planning and carrying out CTA, with chapters on capturing knowledge and capturing the way people reason. It discusses studying cognition in real-world settings and the challenges of rapidly changing technology. And it describes key issues in applying CTA findings in a variety of fields. Working Minds makes the methodology of CTA accessible and the skills involved attainable.




Handbook of Task Analysis Procedures


Book Description

Task Analysis is not only the most important component of Instructional Design but also the most often misconstrued and poorly executed. Starting with this premise these authors have developed a complete reference and instructional text on Task Analysis. The Handbook of Task Analysis Procedures fulfills three distinct purposes. As an overview of the field it presents a comprehensive collection of functions, techniques and tools that can be used in a variety of settings. Thirty-five different procedures are cataloged and described in individual chapters. Providing flowcharts and examples, it is organized to instruct the reader on how to perform these techniques. Finally all chapters have been consistently structed making it an ideal reference book. Handbook of Task Analysis Procedures is designed to help the reader select a specific task analysis technique for a particular situation. Having done this, the reader can then refer to the appropriate chapter for his chosen technique. This chapter provides a statement of purpose, an overview, and applications. It then presents a step by step description of how to use the procedure. The chapter concludes with examples, an evaluation, and a complete set of references. Designed to be used in education and by trainers in the business sector, this volume is a unique reference book. Part I provides an overview of Task Analysis and describes the variables that affect how task analysis is performed. A decision table and discussion help the reader select specific techniques. The techniques are grouped in Part II, III, and IV according to their functional similarity--learning analysis, job analysis, content analysis. Part V describes information gathering tools. This Handbook is essential for the reader who believes that competent task analysis is a vital part of instructional design.




Top Tasks: A How-to Guide


Book Description

Essence of Top Tasks is a prioritized list of what matters most to customers. You then continuously improve these top tasks based on evidence of customers trying to complete them. Developed as a result of 15 years of research and practice. Implemented by some of the world's largest organizations: Cisco, Microsoft, NetApp, IBM, Google, European Union, Toyota, Tetra Pak, and hundreds more. More than 300,000 customers have participated in Top Tasks studies in over 40 countries and 30 languages.




User and Task Analysis for Interface Design


Book Description

Helps you design a great user interface by focusing on the most important step in the process - the first one. You learn to go out and observe your users at work, whether they are employees of your company or people in customer organisations. You learn to find out what your users really need, not by asking them what they want, but by going through a process of understanding what they are trying to accomplish. The authors take you through a step-by-step process to conduct a user and task analysis. You learn: How interface designers use user and task analysis to build successful interfaces; Why knowledge of users, their tasks, and their environments is critical to successful design; How to prepare and set up your site visits; How to select and train your user and task analysis team; What observations to make, questions to ask, and questions to avoid; How to record and report what you have learned to your development team members; How to turn the information you've gathered into design ideas; How to create paper prototypes of your interface design; and How to conduct usability tests with your prototypes to find out if you're on the right track.




Hierarchial Task Analysis


Book Description

Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA) is carried out by professionals who have to undertake a wide range of human factors and human resource design decisions. Using a wide range of industries and contexts to demonstrate the aplicability of HTA in various settings, the author has used straightforward and accessible case studies and examples for the reader. HTA is a method of defining goals and tasks for a particular job (using factors such as time, plant status, conditions, instructions and sequence) and then dividing each goal into 'sub goals', each with its own plan, in order to produce the most effective method of achieving the final aim. The discussion of applications will aim to reenforce general concepts of HTA as well as provide guidance on how HTA may be used. There have been articles on HTA and chapters in other books, but there has never been a book on the subject to do it justice. This will be the first.




Delta CX


Book Description

Delta CX is a refreshing model bringing CX and UX together in task and in name with the key goal of improving the products, services, and experiences (PSE) that we offer our potential and current customers. Rather than following trends or drinking the snake oil, Delta CX presents a time-tested, thorough approach that helps you establish values, vision, strategies, and goals. Great PSE require the right teams and strategies in place to proactively predict and mitigate the risk of delivering wrong or flawed PSE. Adopting Delta CX means we all finally speak the same language, from tasks and deliverables to job titles and required skills to where CX fits into Agile organizations to processes and teams. Calculate the ROI of investing more time and resources into building the right PSE the first time. Save time, money, and sanity. Replace guessing and assumptions with Lean customer research that is planned, conducted, and interpreted by experts. Learn why quality should be our #1 priority, and how to rededicate our organization to our external and internal customers.Target audiences: Managers, workers, practitioners, freelancers, consultants, contractors, execs, stakeholders, and everybody else working in CX, UX, Marketing, Product Management, Engineering, Project Management. Business Analysts (BAs), Data Scientists, Writers, Visual Designers, Information Architects, Interaction Designers, Product Designers, and Researchers.The long and problem-focused version: In an era of faster, faster, faster, our workplaces are sacrificing quality, collaboration, culture, and the customer experience to "just ship it." Business goals don't seem to align with customers' needs. Customers constantly raise their standards and expectations, and they notice when companies are out of touch or get it wrong. Competitors, investors, shareholders, the press, bloggers, social media, and Wall Street also notice. Brands are being surprised when their products, services, and experiences (PSE) are disliked or rejected by customers, or go viral for the wrong reasons. Companies claim they are customer-focused, user-centric, and designing for the needs of real customers. Initiatives to increase the ability to build the right PSE should have meant hiring more CX and UX talent. However, with UX still misunderstood, circumvented, overruled, and excluded at many companies, workplaces that didn't know how to assess CX and UX talent hired anybody who put "UX" on their resume. Poor hiring choices lead to silos and "bad design." Rather than wondering if "UX" workers were unqualified, leadership blamed UX and User-Centered Design (UCD): They must be bloated, outdated, not Lean, not Agile things we don't really need. We started imagining that "everybody can be a designer." Get people sketching in design sprints, and solve our company's biggest challenges. We called for democratization and decentralization of UX and design because perhaps taking some power away from these "high-ego UX people" we hired will fix this. Suddenly, everybody was a design thinker doing design thinking, yet few people can agree on what design thinking is.Everybody became quietly desperate. UX practitioners wanted to evangelize, and invited teammates to UX evangelism presentations, which often backfired. Companies of all sizes and ages, including Fortune 500s, tried methodologies designed for startups. Startups fail roughly 95% of the time. It's so rare that they innovate or build something the public actually wants. Why would we want to emulate a segment with such a high failure rate? We're lost. We need another business transformation, a return to prioritizing the quality of what we ideate, architect, design, test, build, and unleash on the public.(Return to the top for the short and happy version.)




Applied Cognitive Task Analysis in Aviation


Book Description

Due to the requirements of automatic system design, and new needs for the training of complex tasks, Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) has been used with increasing frequency in recent years by the airline industry and air traffic control community. Its power is reflected in the literature on professional training and systems design, where CTA is often cited as one of the most promising new technologies, especially for the complex cognitive tasks now confronting those working in aviation. The objective of this book is to bridge the gap between research and practice, to make what we know about CTA available to practitioners in the field. The book focuses on cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence analyses of aviation tasks. It is designed to help readers identify and solve specific design and training problems, in the flight deck, air traffic control and operations contexts. Distilling experience and guidelines from the best aviation cognitive analyses in accessible form, it is the first comprehensive volume on CTA, and is written for practitioners of cognitive analysis in aviation. It provides an overview of analyses to date; methods of data collection; and recommendations for designing and conducting CTA for use in instructional design, systems development, and evaluation. The first part of the book provides the principles and foundations of CTA, describing traditional approaches to task analysis and ways that cognitive analyses can be integrated with the analysis and development processes. The next part details how to: select the appropriate method or methods; determine job tasks that can be trained for automatic performance; extract knowledge structures; analyse mental models; and identify the decision-making and problem-solving strategies associated with experienced job performance. The authors also describe when to use and how to design and conduct a cognitive task analysis; how to use CTA along with traditional task analysis and ISD; and how to use CTA in training program development and systems design, as well as in personnel selection and evaluation. The current demand for cognitive analyses makes this a timely volume for those in aviation and, more generally, the industrial development and training communities. Readers will find this a thorough presentation of cognitive analyses in aviation and a highly usable guide in the design, implementation and interpretation of CTA. The book will be useful to instructional developers, aviation equipment and systems designers, researchers, government regulatory personnel, human resource managers, instructors, pilots, air traffic controllers, and operations staff.