I've heard a number of people say that all of the content on a site should be available in three mouse clicks (or less). The "Three Click Rule" is one of those things that's been around for years, and people often latch onto it. Josh Porter decided to subject this rule to some actual user testing (novel idea, huh?). His conclusion was that the "Three Click Rule" is "misdirected but well-intentioned."
In our studies, users complain about how long it takes to find things all the time. This is one way that users vocalize their frustration. They tell us that if they could only reduce the number of frustrating clicks the site would be better.
However, these complaints aren't actually about the clicks. They are really complaints about failing to find something. When users find what they want they don't complain about number of clicks.
Posted by Karl
December 2, 2003 02:15 PM