Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!mailrus!cornell!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!cadre!pitt!mullins
From: mullins@pitt.UUCP (Paul M. Mullins)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Task taxonomies
Message-ID: <4390@pitt.UUCP>
Date: 6 Jan 89 12:55:41 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept., Univ. of Pittsburgh
Lines: 33


Developing a set of tasks or a task description is a common starting
point for interface design.  Many task taxonomies have been developed
as a part of this process.  If you were creating a new interface
(assume this is a command language for simplicity) for an Office
Information System what would you use as the initial set of tasks?
What is the most general (all-inclusive) published task taxonomy you
are aware of?  How much of its generality can be attributed to
high-level task description and how much to the inclusion of "basic
task elements"?

This may spark argument about the "proper" way of determining the
functionality needed by an interface.  If you argue that interviews,
end-user specifications, etc are the correct way to begin, consider
whether a basic task set is implicit in your method also.

As you might suspect, I am investigating the design of such task sets.
I would like to ascertain what you (net-people) consider to be the basic
references for such taxonomies, how they are arrived at, and how they
are customized to a particular situation.  A general discussion is
great, but specific references or lists of tasks will be of more use
to me.

I'll summarize all e-mail responses.

Thanks in advance,
Paul
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Paul Mullins		UUCP:      psuvax1!pitt!mullins or {allegra,cadre}!...
Univ. of Pittsburgh		   mullins@pitt.uucp
Computer Science Dept.	Internet:  mullins@vax.cs.pittsburgh.edu
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