Why Tasks?
/Stepping into the shoes of the visitors to your website to understand their ‘key tasks’ will help you improve the user experience of your website.
You only have a few seconds to engage a visitor and help them find the information they are looking for so you need to make them count!
Your website is a tool that helps people complete tasks
NOT an online brochure!
Why people come to your website
When people come to your website they want to do a specific task (or set of tasks) eg, find contact details, learn more about what you do or purchase goods and services.
Organisation focus vs user focus
Website content can often be organisation focused instead of user focused. This XKCD (www.xkcd.com) comic provides a great example.
A diagram showing the discrepancy between the information on the home page of a university website (eg, news, promotions and school philosophy) and what people are actually looking for (eg, address, contacts, calendar, course lists, map and parking information).
Define key tasks
Defining the most popular tasks, and making them easy to complete, will ensure visitors have a good experience and want to engage more with your organisation.
You can define your visitor key tasks by analysing:
their motivation for coming to your site
what you have to offer and associated benefits
stakeholder (external and internal) surveys
common queries – via email, phone and face to face
website statistics – popular search terms and pages.
Highlight key tasks
Key tasks can be highlighted in:
navigation menus
highlight boxes
call to action buttons
well-written content
communicating visual hierarchy in the design.
Examples of key tasks
Examples of key tasks are:
find information on who you are and what you do
find contact and location details
find resources
join/get involved
register for an event
log in
donate.
How many?
Highlight the top 5-7 tasks so visitors to your site are not overwhelmed with information overload!
More information
International UX consultant Gerry McGovern discusses how digital teams are often blind to customer key tasks and why: