There probably isn’t a web designer around who hasn’t heard of ‘the 3 click rule’, and most of us just accept it blindly and unquestioningly. I mean, it makes sense, right?
Wrong.
A number of people undertake the exruciatingly tedious task of analysing clicks and user behaviour so that the rest of us can benefit from their painstaking research and hopefully make the web a better place. Without going into too much detail (which to be quite honest, sent me to sleep the first time I tried to write about it) the conclusions point to this simple fact. Users don’t need fewer decisions (clicks), they need easier ones, so if the choices presented to a person are simple and straightforward they will be more than happy to click away to their hearts content to get what they want.
To read the original research at uie.com please click here, here or here.
Tags: user experience, web design