3 isn’t the magic number
At UX London I went to the Jared Spool workshop ‘Designing for Content-Rich Sites’. As expected I was entertained and educated, but I was also reminded of an urban myth that has come back to haunt me time, and time, again.
‘People need to get to all our content within 3 clicks’
This is simply not true – they don’t! In the hundreds of user tests we run each year we witness people happily clicking away, delving deep down in to the depths of sites to find what they are looking for. It’s a joy to watch a hungry participant hunting for their bounty.
The scent of information
However, it can all go horribly wrong if people loose what Jared Spool refers to as ‘the scent of information’. To have a good hunt you need to follow good scent. On a website that often means navigation and content which is full of fragrant trigger words – words that reassure people they are on the right track and help them decide where to go next. Long descriptive links help too; Jared’s research suggests 7-12 words as the optimum length for a link.
6 clicks, but I’m happy
Last Wednesday I couldn’t remember if I needed to put our rubbish bin out with our recycling in the morning. A quick visit to my local council’s website told me that I did. In truth my task took me 6 whole clicks, but back in the reality I feel and care about, it took seconds. My hunt was made easy thanks to trigger words like ‘recycling’, ‘rubbish’, and ‘collection day finder’ being littered along my way.
Can’t click, wont click
If people lose the scent of information, they start to get nervous: confidence goes down, decisions become harder to make and people hesitate. Suddenly, choosing where to click seems very hard to do and that’s when people notice how many clicks you’re asking them to make.
There’s no magic number
We want to design sites which allow people to find the content they’re after without expending any unnecessary effort. Design for good scent of information. Don’t waste time worrying about the number of clicks. Bin that urban myth.
About the author
Fiz has 15 years experience managing projects. She's worked with some great clients including the Houses of Parliament, Nokia and UCAS, making their websites more usable and effective. Email Fiz, or call +44 (0)117 946 3930 @vivafiz
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Ah, one of my favourite rules, and always a treat to see it in a client’s spec. Especially when they want to combine it with the other mythical number, the “no more than 7 items in the navigation” rule.
I always find the 2 are especially likely to be asked for together on sites with several thousand pages…
Cracking conference btw wasn’t it? Sadly I missed Jared’s workshop though…
I’ve found the same thing in my own research, people don’t mind clicking as long as the path is clear and eventually gets them to their goal.
I must admit though when I saw the title of you post I had hoped it would be about the general significance in western culture.
You see three step processes and propositions everywhere on the web. And in other place.
Do you have any thoughts on why three seems to be the magic number in our culture, while in china for instance the number seven has a certain significance?
I agree. It’s always good to question clients’ assumptions. Sometimes you want people to go the slightly longer route, so you can tempt them with goodies along the way. That’s why supermarkets put the essential items like milk or bread at the back, so you walk past other more tempting stuff. You follow the scent of freshly baked bread, but buy some choccies or other treats that weren’t on your shopping list. And sometimes people don’t know exactly which content they want anyway; theyre just nosing around. The idea of a scent trail is an enticing one; I like it.