The tasks we create should cover the most common and critical activities that visitors will do at our website, and any “suspect” areas of our tree. |
We can “borrow” tasks from any previous card sorting or usability testing that we’ve done for this site. |
We should create as many tasks as we need to cover the key parts of our tree, but we shouldn't ask a given participant more than 8-10 tasks. |
We should decide if we need different tasks (and therefore separate tests) for different audiences, or if they can all “reasonably pretend” to do each other’s tasks. |
Avoid the most common task pitfalls by using our guidelines to write clear, effective tasks. |
We need to be careful and consistent in marking our correct answers, because there may be more than we expected. |
In most cases, we should randomize the order of tasks to reduce the learning effect. |
In most cases, we should let participants skip (give up on) tasks to avoid user frustration and pollution of the results. |
Next: Chapter 8 - Setting up a test