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Thread: 3 or 4 clicks
Number of posts in this thread: 6 (In chronological order)
From: clamato
Date: Thu, Mar 09 2006 11:00AM
Subject: 3 or 4 clicks
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I am in the process of constructing a large web site that must be fully accessibile. The site is very deep but I'm trying to keep all information no more than 3 clicks away. In terms of accessibility which option would be best: a web document with a list of ~30 links (all to different documents) or forcing the user to access 4 documents (make 4 clicks) to get to the final information.
TIA
Cheryl Amato
From: Karl Groves
Date: Thu, Mar 09 2006 11:20AM
Subject: RE: 3 or 4 clicks
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First things first, it sounds as if you've latched onto some "usability
guru's" recommendation about a "three click rule".
The reality is that so long as the user feels they are making positive
progress toward their goal, you shouldn't worry too much about how many
clicks it takes.
Let's face it, if you had a 10,000 page web site, you couldn't avoid having
more than 3 clicks.
If the user is able to accomplish their goal, and *feels* like it was easy
to do, that can often outweigh how many clicks it actually took.
Karl L. Groves
User-Centered Design, Inc.
Office: 703-729-0998
Mobile: 571-214-1714
E-Mail: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Web: http://www.user-centereddesign.com
>
From: Jens Meiert
Date: Thu, Mar 09 2006 11:30AM
Subject: Re: 3 or 4 clicks
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> In terms of accessibility which option would be best: a web document
> with a list of ~30 links (all to different documents) or forcing the
> user to access 4 documents (make 4 clicks) to get to the final
> information.
It's certainly beneficial if you don't require many "clicks", but it's most
important that users can accomplish their goals (and constantly have the
feeling that they're on the right track).
Navigation structure is another topic, though, which is discussed
controversially (see for example HFI's 2003 newsletter [1].
[1] http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/apr03.asp
--
Jens Meiert
http://meiert.com/
Webdesign mit CSS (O'Reilly, German)
http://meiert.com/cssdesign/
From: Kynn Bartlett
Date: Thu, Mar 09 2006 11:40AM
Subject: Re: 3 or 4 clicks
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It depends on the context, and the right answers will probably come out in
your user testing for usability (which, of course, will involve users with
disabilities as well as those without).
There's no clear rule, of course.
Note that many users prefer searching rather than navigating, by the way. I
rarely descend hierarchies myself, any more.
--Kynn
On 3/9/06, = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> I am in the process of constructing a large web site that must be fully
> accessibile. The site is very deep but I'm trying to keep all information no
> more than 3 clicks away. In terms of accessibility which option would be
> best: a web document with a list of ~30 links (all to different documents)
> or forcing the user to access 4 documents (make 4 clicks) to get to the
> final information.
>
From: Austin, Darrel
Date: Thu, Mar 09 2006 12:50PM
Subject: RE: 3 or 4 clicks
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> I am in the process of constructing a large web site that
> must be fully accessibile. The site is very deep but I'm
> trying to keep all information no more than 3 clicks away.
For a large site, I'd recommend taking a look at this report:
http://www.uie.com/reports/scent_of_information/
I've written a synopsis here:
http://mnteractive.com/archive/above-the-fold-is-obsolete-and-digibuy-is
-a-good-company/
It's a good report in that it questions a lot of what we web developers
have always assumed was correct common sense...things like 'keep it
above the fold' and 'no more than X clicks'.
And, after questioning it, pretty much shows us that these aren't
terribly correct...at least not anymore.
To summarize what the report says, the number of clicks is irrelevant.
What is important that each click they do make takes them closer and
closer to the specific content they are looking for.
-Darrel
From: clamato
Date: Fri, Mar 10 2006 12:30PM
Subject: 3 or 4 clicks
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Thanks to everyone for their comments and links to references.
Cheryl