The 3 Click Rule and You
Depending on the size and complexity of your website, the concept of getting your users to their destination in 3 clicks or less is not always achievable – attempting it can in fact be completely counter-intuitive and make your site even more unruly.
If you are designing a site with large amounts of information available to the user, trying to get them to all of it within three clicks will require countless page links, an incredibly complex main navigation or even worse, multiple fly-outs from a dropdown menu.
What really matters is that the user understands they are heading in the right direction and if they remain on their chosen path they will reach their destination.
Keeping the user informed of where they are, where they have come from and where they are headed is enough to keep users on task. If you achieve this, the only other hurdle is the content itself and whether it is relevant enough to justify their journey.
