21_XasanovBahodir

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TASHKENT UNIVERSITY OF INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGIES
NAMED AFTER MUHAMMAD AL-KHORAZMI
Presentation 1
Group: 02-24 KOOKMIN
Faculty: Business IT
Completed by: Xasanov B.
Accepted by:Burxanova Aygul
Tashkent 2026

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Task Analysis in UX design. Definition. Comparison
with CJM, User flow & User story mapping
Task analysis — is not that popular UX research method though, but
definitely underestimated. Let’s make clear what’s it for and how to use
it in design process. I will also share some use cases, explaining how it
differs from CJM, user flow and user story mapping.

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1. What is task analysis?
Task analysis is an observation method of the actions that users perform
in order to achieve their goal.
Note: Task analysis emerged out of instructional design (the design of
training) and human factors and ergonomics (understanding how people
use systems in order to improve safety, comfort, and productivity). But it
perfectly found it’s place in ux design.

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2. What is it for?
By analyzing the tasks (steps) the user takes in the process, we can
discover important key points, focus on them and optimize, thereby
designing the best UX.
The method is good both for designing a brand new product/ feature
and for optimizing existing one.

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3. When to use it?
I found it helpful in two us design cases:
• At the discovery stage of new product/ feature (example: you have a
hyposesis how your app/ service could help people, so you observe
how people solve their problems now and analyze it)
• In usability testing (example: you can analyze how people interact
with competitor’s existing products)

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4. Why is task analysis useful?
Because it helps to understand:
• What the goals of your users are; what they try to achieve.
• What users actually do to achieve these goals.
• What experiences (personal, social and cultural) users bring to the
process. How users are affected by their environment.
• How users’ previous knowledge and experience affect their workflow
(which they follow to complete the goal)

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5. How to conduct task analysis?
So, the first is to do qualitative research: contextual inquiry, user
interviews, diary studies (videos or notes that participants make every
day performing some tasks).
The second is to analyze the data and make a diagram. Remember that
you are analyzing some user’s goal (for example, buy plane tickets to
Bali online). A goal always has a start and end point.
Note: User steps are analyzed according to hierarchy, order of actions,
frequency of execution and cognitive load (where the user needs to rack
your brains and think).

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5.1 How to build a diagram?
• Set the goal (for example: to book a flight tickets to Tokyo).
• Define the tasks (big steps) that the user must take in order to
achieve the goal.
• Define subtasks (mini steps) that are located under the tasks and
describe each step of the user. Additional steps are also inserted
here that need to be taken in a certain situation (for example: if you
forgot the password from your Aviasales personal account).
• Add an action plan — a description of how the actions are performed
and what conditions should be followed.

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6. Result
You’ve just built the diagram “as is” (i.e the existing process). Now you
can brainstorm with your team reviewing the process. Use a critical
approach while analyzing. Think about what steps you can kick off
/move /add for example. Then make the diagram “to be” (i.e. your
target process).
It may seem like a waste of time (because most likely you’ve already
done something like this before), but believe me, visualizing data in this
way greatly simplifies the work with the product. The team understands:
what, how, why. It helps to improve the communication inside the team,
since people less bother you with questions.

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Now let’s move to the practice!

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1. Task analysis AS IS & TO BE
Let’s take PayPal and try to conduct a task analysis.
We have a goal: — “transfer 500$ to Indonesian host”
Firstly we describe all the tasks that need to be completed in order to send a transfer, for example: “register” — “ link
the banking card” — “create the transfer”, etc.
Below the tasks, we write subtasks (I advise to do it in detail) — for example, “enter a phone number” — “get an SMS
confirmation” — enter an email”, and so on.
Next, start brainstorming. Perhaps some subtasks can and should be swapped or kicked off, or probably you should add
new ones — it depends on the situation. Red questions over here highlight controversial/incomprehensible/extra
steps.

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Let’s look in detail. For example, in PayPal one of the most terrible
moments is when you don’t understand what the total amount will be
charged from your card, because there is no any info on the transfer
confirmation page.
You know for sure that there is a fee because PayPal says like: “Hey, your
bank may charge a fee, but you have to figure it out by yourself.” As a
result, you sit and think: “Should I take a risk and transfer, or is it better
to pay through airbnb and don’t care?!”
Press enter or click to view image in full size

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Paysend on the contrary reviewed the process and made it more
transparent. You can clearly see how much money will be charged from
your card, what the fee will be and how much a receiver will eventually
get in his currency.
Note: when you do a “To Be task analysis”, it is not necessary to reduce
the number of steps (this is not always the best UX), the main thing is to
make sure they are really necessary and make the process more
transparent for the user.

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2. Task analysis vs CJM
Customer journey map is a more global view on a product that can
cover the customer journey beyond the product itself.

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Using CJM, we can understand:
How the user starts to interact with the product and why;
How it happens at different stages;
What problems may arise on the user’s path;
What he feels at this time (fears / doubts / joy, etc.)
CJM draws attention to details at different points when the user contacts with a
product. Thus we understand where exactly are the problems.
Task analysis is more about one specific task, about the sequence of user actions
in the product in order achieve something.

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Let’s go back to our case with Paysend:
CJM can tell about how and why the user started interacting with
Paysend, describe the thoughts and feelings that the user experiences
while using the product.
The steps in CJM can be: Recognize the problem (make a transfer) —
Search for transfer options — Register with Paysend — Create a transfer
— Confirm the transfer — Receive notification of a successful transfer
and hotel booking.

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3. Task analysis vs User flow
These two are also similar, but let’s look at the differences.
User flow is a visualization of the sequence of user actions in a product. It can be made for a single feature or for the
entire product. Usually it has conditions and a choice of actions, which are indicated by ramifications.
For example: according to the PayPal task analysis, we realized that you can make a transfer only by login (your email
address). Perhaps the recipient does not have a PayPal account and asking him to create it just for your single transfer
is ..hhh… a little bit awkward.
Therefore, in the user flow we consider the choice of a transfer method. For example, a transfer to a bank account and
to an account number. In the first option, the recipient does not need to do anything, the money will simply go to his
bank account.

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4. Task analysis vs User story mapping
User story map is an approach proposed by Jeff Pattan as a way to
visualize user stories; using them and prioritizing them in the backlog.
Very quickly, the method became widely used in the agile methodology
approach.
The map is created to replace traditional documentation and look at
product development from the user’s perspective and his/her aims.
The map can be compiled both for the entire product, and for some
specific feature.

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The process of making this map is huge, since you
need to have three components:
• Persona (persona is a representative of your target audience),
• User story (user story — sentences about what the user wants to
achieve)
• User journey (user journey — a set of all the steps that the user
takes to achieve the goal).

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The map is created hierarchically and consists of
the following parts:
Epic — the main user actions in the product (for example: registration)
User activity/story — steps that the user takes to complete the main
actions (epic) (for example: enter mail data, enter residence data, etc.)
Details — detailed interactions required to complete the steps.
It seems to me that task analysis can be used as a framework for
building a user story map. You just need to add an epic, user stories and
divide it into releases.

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So, at the second step of the task analysis we see that PayPal’s transfer
method is available is only by login number (email).
User story: “As a user, I want to be able to transfer money to the
recipient’s card so that he doesn’t have to create an account in Paypal.”
Epic: the action “Transfer” — which will consist of several steps.
User story/activity: “Create the transfer” — (i.e. the step to be taken).

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Details:
Choose a transfer to a card of any bank in the world;
Transfer to an electronic wallet (any);
Transfer to PayPal account;
Transfer to a crypto wallet, etc.

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Then your team starts the discussion and
prioritization of all these features for the product
backlog.
For example: we understand that we cannot transfer to the recipient’s
crypto wallet (maybe for now), we postpone this feature for good days
(put the sticker below any other stickers). We can’t transfer to any
electronic wallet either, but are going to try in the near future, so we
also put it below (but above the sticker with the crypto wallet).
Next, we draw a line that defines releases. Everything that is above the
topmost line — we take into work now. What is below we save for next
releases.

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Takeways:
• Task analysis is a tool that allows you to focus on the specific task
that the user is trying to complete. To look at them in detail, analyze
and modify.
• Task analysis helps you break down the task into atoms and sort out
all the details. This way it becomes easier to conduct brainstorming
with your team, stakeholders or other participants.
• Task analysis is based on qualitative research: contextual inquiries,
user interviews, diary studies, or usability tests.
• Task analysis can serve as a framework for the subsequent creation
of user journey maps or user story maps.