Create Testable Scenarios

What are your app's common tasks?

Since you've already completed your flowchart and wireframes, you have a general idea of your app's functionality. Now, it's time to pinpoint specific tasks that users can accomplish. This is really similar to a list of features. For instance, a user of a transit app might be able to purchase a ticket or find a route based on the shortest distance.

Identify the high-level tasks, then think about related subtasks (smaller steps) that become part of the "flow" through your app. Tasks and subtasks should all be very specific:

As Don Norman (1998) said, users are notoriously bad at clearly articulating goals: e.g., ”I want to be a good mom” – where do you even begin? Each subtask should be specified in terms of objectives. Put together, these objectives should cover the whole area of interest—i.e., help a user achieve a goal in full. [...]

Larry Marine, a UX consultant, argues that your user research should focus on collecting the following five types of data, which you will use later during the task analysis phase:

• Trigger: What prompts users to start their task?
• Desired Outcome: How users will know when the task is complete?
• Base Knowledge: What will the users be expected to know when starting the task?
• Required Knowledge: What the users actually need to know in order to complete the task?
• Artifacts: What tools or information do the users utilize during the course of the task?

— Interaction Design Foundation, "How to improve your UX designs with Task Analysis"

One small task can become a huge tree of subtasks, validation, and status messages, especially if you consider edge cases.

Luckily, good planning can help you cut down on many of the frustrations. Read the section "Goal: 1. Send a text message to the hospital’s system" from Interaction Design Foundation: How to improve your UX designs with Task Analysis and pay attention to the redesigned steps.

This kind of optimization (cutting down on the user's workload, automating what we can) is called reducing friction and is crucial for good UX. We've all clicked away from a page that seemed too long or complicated – a high-friction application that is annoying or clunky to use may cause users to abandon registration or purchases.

Going into detail with tasks & subtasks

This video seems pedantic, but is actually incredibly helpful for the type of thinking you need when planning tasks and scenarios:

We cannot plan for ideal users or assume that they know how to do everything. In the video, the dad was missing key information:

• How much peanut butter is enough?
• Which side of the bread does it go on?
• Which side of the knife should be used?

Your app's users won't be that extreme, but you also cannot assume that they know what you know or have the same comfort level with technology.

Think of other people in your life: friends, parents, grandparents. Think of your personas. What assumptions or knowledge would they have while trying to accomplish tasks?

Writing sample scenarios

A scenario is a short story or prompt that is built around a task. Tasks themselves are great, but you can use a scenario to help your user get in the right mindset. Contextualize it: why is the user attempting the task?

Scenarios can vary in length and detail (see Usability.gov: Scenarios). In this example, we are focusing on goal-oriented scenarios.

Goal- or Task-Based Scenarios state only what the user wants to do.  Do not include any information on how the user would complete the scenario.

You should give these types of scenarios to users in a usability test. It gives them a reason and a goal for going to the site, but it lets them show you how they would use the site to accomplish that goal.

— usability.gov, "Scenarios"

Example

Imagine that you are evaluating the interface of an online course.

If your task was:

Find out how many points you get from a homework assignment

...then your scenario might be:

You are a bit behind in the course and have to choose which assignment to sacrifice and which to complete. Due to your busy schedule, you only have time to complete one of the week's assignments. Which one has the most points and which one are you willing to skip? How would you go about finding out?

The scenario gives the user motivation to complete the task even if they don't know all the details about the task; they have a reason to care. There are also questions that will help you gain insight. When you test, you will want your users to "think out loud" for the best understanding of their thought process; the questions act as a prompt to get the dialogue started.