Category: Business – Economics

3-click rule — the magic number

A maximum of information in a minimum of words.

This is a particularly deep belief for your graphic designer friends for 10 years, but we have come a long way, and the usability tests have shown it for a while…

I will not lie to you any longer, users of your services will not leave your site or application if they can not find the information they are looking for in 3 clicks.

The number of clicks needed does not affect the success rate and even less the satisfaction of users: the important thing is to have a smooth, easy and understandable navigation (yes, the rules of 3 adjectives affect me too).

The scent of information

The concept is a simple idea and quite primitive as the name suggests : to have a good hunt, you must follow a good smell!

On a website or an application, the smell will take shape with the content, scented with confidence, the right word, the good image.

A little like my previous article about form field (Form fields — Required vs Optional), never forget that the most important thing when designing a product is to give the user the feeling of being in the center of all the expectations.

It’s a bit like setting a trap for a hungry bear, bait him, feed him to your final goal and he will follow you without even realizing it.

The key is your content: put it in value, coated to bring your user to be tempted to immerse himself in it and especially not let him lose The scent of information !

Once lost, the user hesitates, it becomes difficult for him to finish the action, and he will eventually notice the number of clicks you ask him to do.

Do not waste time worrying about the number of clicks, worry about the scent of information.

Disclamer :

I already see the crowd of designer dissatisfied ‘yes that’s fine theory, but when you can do 2 click instead of 6 is better no?’

YES, of course, this article is meant to make you think, to give you concrete information about the different studies done about the 3 clicks rule, but do not get me wrong, when you can do 2 clicks instead of 6 without spoiling the navigation experience, made it, but do not forget The scent of information.

Jordane Samson
Head of design @gojob - 
#UX provider. For more from jordane sanson and to follow him select the link below: https://medium.com/@JordaneSanson/followers