This is why so much well-designed software fails. This is the problem with BMW’s original design for the iDrive. The iDrive provided a logical, sensible organization of the automobile’s controls and displays. But it failed to support activity patterns. The correct approach to the support of behavior is activity-based classification.
Is activity-centered design overthrowing all that we have learned about human-centered design? No, definitely not. I consider activity structure to be a refinement of HCD. Taxonomic structures are appropriate when there is no context, when suddenly needing some new piece of information or tool. That’s why this structure works well for libraries, stores, websites, and the program menu of an operating system. But once an activity has begun, then taskonomy is the way to go, where things used together are placed near one another, where any one item might be located logically within the taxonomic structure but also wherever behaviorally appropriate for the activities being supported.
