DOMINIC W. MASSARO, editor
University of California, Santa Cruz

The Putative Uniqueness of Human–Computer Interaction

The Handbook of Task Analysis for Human–Computer Interaction
Edited by Dan Diaper and Neville A. Stanton. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 2004. 650 pp. Cloth, $159.95.

The necessity of task analysis comes from the fact that artifacts—be they physical devices or principles of social organization—are intended to be used by someone other than the designer. As long as artifacts are used by the person who designed them, they can evolve gradually, and adjustments can made continuously, often in a sporadic rather than systematic manner. But when designing artifacts for someone else it is necessary to think through their intended use (i.e., the tasks) in all details. Adjustments may be possible only at discrete intervals, often far apart, and the continuous feedback and adjustments so characteristic of own use are missing. Furthermore, the capabilities and interests of the future user may be only incompletely known. It is therefore necessary to make all assumptions explicit and address them in some systematic way as part of the design, typically by means of some kind of task analysis.