Task-Analysis Reading Quiz

This quiz is based on the task-analysis chapter in the online textbook. Answer the questions in this quiz to see how well you've read and understood the chapter. Feel free to look up answers in the book and retake this quiz until you get all the answers right.

Your first name & middle-, last-name initials Your ID code (the one you created when you started this course)
  1. Task analysis is most important when you writing which the following kinds of documents?
    User guides
    Technical reports
    White papers
  2. Which of the following best defines the term task analysis?
    Identifying the activities that the actual users of the product are most likely to use that product for.
    Identifying the activities that the developers of the product designed into that product.
    Identifying the prerequisite knowledge that the actual users of the product must have to use a product.
  3. Which of the following best defines user interface as the term is used in this chapter?
    Tasks that the user can accomplish with the product; these are defined in the product specfications that developers have written for the product.
    Functions that developers have built in to the product.
    Buttons, menu options, and other elements that users use to make the product accomplish their tasks.
  4. Which of the following best defines product specifications?
    Explanations of the functions of the product.
    Explanations of how end users can accomplish their work tasks.
    Explanations of typical problems encountered with the application and how to solve them.
  5. Which of the following best explains why product specifications don't work well as instructions for actual end users of a product?
    They do work quite well as instructions for end users!
    Product specifications are written in highly technical language that ordinary users are not likely to understand, even though the sequence of steps is presented.
    Product specifications explain the function of a specific interface element; they don't provide instructions to guide the user through the steps of accomplishing the related task.
  6. If you were writing a user guide for a software product in which you saw this menu selection, Selection-->Text Case, which of the following would you use as a task-oriented translation of that menu option?
    Changing Case
    Text Case
    Case
  7. Web browsers enable you to "bookmark" web sites you've found that you might want to return to. Which of the following would be the best heading for a section in a user guide on bookmarking favorite web sites?
    Bookmarking Favorite Sites
    Bookmark Function
    Bookmark
  8. Sometimes, user-interface elements adequately describe the task. However, there is still a potential problem. Which of the following explains that problem?
    No problem at all.
    The tasks implied by the interface elements may not actualy be implemented in the application.
    Sometimes, you can't just press the button or click the menu option to accomplish the complete task.
  9. To define the tasks for which you need to write instructions, you can study the user interface and determine plenty. What else do you need to do, if anything?
    That's it—because the user interface defines everything the users can do, there's nothing left.
    Interview real users and watch how they work.
  10. Which of the following explains why product specifications are often used as user-guides?
    Because product specifications usually work quite well as user-guide information.
    Because no time is left in the production cycle, or because developers or inexperienced writers do the writing.
    Because product specifications are based on user-guide information.
       

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