Task flows for gargoyles
This article is day 1 of a 31 day series. A mash-up of the Inktober 2022 prompt list and UX terminology. Read more about the challenge here.
Day 1 | Inktober prompt: Gargoyle | UX Term: Task Flow
Victor, Hugo, Laverne, and Mel
In 1996 Disney released an animated feature film called “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”. In it, three gargoyles, Victor, Hugo, and Laverne act as guardians for our beloved Quasimodo. I find this adorable.
In 2022 I find myself at the beginning of a journey to spread insight about UX design, and day one of this journey is focused on task flows.
What is a task flow?
To quickly sum up a task flow, you can think of it as a representation of the high level steps necessary to complete a single task.
There are a couple of considerations to keep in mind:
- it should be simple
- it should only cover a single task
- it should focus on interaction points and steps taken only
- it should not include any decisions or branches
Why is it important to UX?
The goal of UX design is improve the user experience. In order to do that, we need to understand how that can be done. And we need to know what the heck users even want to do.
Task flows represent the framework upon which we can build and further refine the various flows a user takes through an app. These task flows can then go on to become part of the more elaborate user flow.
How do you make one?
To make a task flow, you’re defining a task completed by one of your personas. You want it to be representative of a common task completed by the user, and you want it to clearly define each step. It should show the screens involved and steps of the task.
Let’s take our gargoyle friends as an example. Let’s say we’re creating an app for the medieval Feast of Fools (go with me here), described as the Festival of Fools in the Hunchback movie. We’ve identified three personas as representative users of the app, Victor, Hugo, and Laverne.
For each we’ve defined a task they would likely want to complete within the app.
Victor is the more level headed and cautious gargoyle. He wants to ensure he can leave the event at a moments notice. His task: find an event map to identify all event exits.
Hugo, the more mischievous and reckless of the bunch, wants to find the most exciting events. His task: find an event based on a specific category.
Laverne is like a mother figure, and wants to ensure that the event will be appropriate. Her task: see what others are saying about the event.
So you can see from these three seemingly simple tasks, we’re already developing a better understanding of the screens we’ll need for this app in order to support users.
Takeaway
Use the task flow creation stage of your process to ensure that you’re representing the tasks your users are most likely to complete, and embrace the simplicity. With this solid base, you’ll be well on your way to creating the most popular app of medieval times, enjoyed by anthropomorphic gargoyles far and wide.
