Subgoals get progressively smaller as the user interacts with process or artifact needed to accomplish their high level goal. Conflicts between a user's goals and task structure result in abandoned tasks, forgotten steps, lost productivity, and lost revenue. These conflicts arise from semantics, common sense views of how the world works, as well as general characteristics of human cognitive systems. By exploring examples of mismatches, I hope to help you identify the cost of awkward task structures, how to recognize such structures, and how to fix them. Consider the real world task of making copies.
People sometime forget that last step, remove the original.
The source and conditions under which this error occurs has been pondered for some time in psychological inquiry, but the issue is becoming less tangled. This type of error, however, is indicative of another general cognitive principle. Top level goals help sustain subgoals in cognitive systems and protect them from forgetting or subjugation to other distractions. Leaving the original in a copier points out the lack of match between user goals and the task structure. When the user removes the copies from the tray the top level goal is satisfied, removing it from it's role as the sustainer of subgoals.