INFO 440 - L11 - November 4, 2004
Notes By: Prins, Egaas, Fortier, Yaptinchay

Tasks and Design


What are Tasks?
    > Referred in the book as "Activities" (Tasks ↔ Activities)
    > The activities that users can perform in your system.
    > What users are trying to accomplish.
        - Small goals that support the sider range usage goals of the system
    > What drive the features of the system
    > The triple is the big picture -- WOO WEE
    > Critical tasks and features only

So.... Tasks are Activities that support user goals and lead you to Features.

Features vs. Functions
    > Nowhere (except here) is it written that:
        - A feature is something that the user experiences
        - A function is something that the underlying system does
    > Your job is to expose complex functions as easy to understand and use features

Feature Design - Setting "Knobs"
    > Rich features vs. simple to use 
        * A trade-off
    > Features for all tasks versus most important tasks
        * Are you going to give the ability to allow the person to do anything they think of?
        * Balancing between "exciting" and bare minimum
    > Features for beginners versus experts
        * Keep in mind your persona - that is who you're writing your system for
    > Virtual versus physical features
        * Does everything have to be automated?
        * Why online quizzes are online?
        * Do all features need to be virtual?
    > Standardized versus specialized
        * Standardized: You know what's there
        * Specialized: Tailored

What are some common functions and features?

Typical Info Retrieval *Functions*

Typical RDB Functions
    > Programmatic functions (all DB’s)
        - Create the DB
        - Find records
        - Add records
        - Update records
        - Delete records 
    > Access UI functions
        - New database
        - Tables
        - Queries
        - Reports
        - Forms
        - Code
        
Typical Info Retrieval *Features*
    > Connection
    > Selection of a DB
    > Search
    > Subset creation
    > Analyze, sort, display, format
    > Download
    > Save, edit, recall searches
    > Current awareness
    > Cross-lingual search
    > Terminate the session

A Search Function
A Creation Feature
A Creation Function
A RDB Output UI


// YOUR PROJECT REPORT \\
Important Add to your project
    > Who are you?! (ONE PAGE TOPS)
        - Couple of paragraphs at start of report
        - Name of your org
        - What your org does.
        - Why you care about this project?
        - How it fits in with the rest of what you are doing to meet your org goals.
        - Not the goals of the user, but "you"
    > Who you are drives
        - Triple
        - Selection of persona
        - Boss’s perspective
        - Requirements

IA Methods
    > Create your own brainstorm, topic map, card sort, taxonomy method
        - Must result in a subject taxonomy (THE REQUIRED DELIVERABLE)
            * Combine our understanding along with that of our user
            * Should be like the last part of the IA Lab
        - Must combine your understanding with the user’s understanding
        - Preserve your process!

Content Modeling Methods
    > Choose your own source
        - websites
        - files
        - print materials
    > Must Include
        - Domain statement and criteria
        - At least 5 content types  (with elements)
        - At least 3 access structures.
    > Preserve your process!

Give him an idea on what we did to come up with what we did. Describe the process.
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