Sunday, October 14, 2007
The "Three-Click Rule" - Fact or Fiction?
Is this really true? Are there people out there who will leave a site if they don’t find what they want in three clicks? After reading about the “Three-Click Rule” in chapter 10 of Nielsen’s book I began to wonder if people like this really exist? Does the average web user have the attention span of a goldfish or are we more tolerable in our searching and navigation? I think that the majority of users have enough patience to pursue the right information for more than three clicks and I think this comes through experience since some sites require more work than others to get to the right information. Nielsen also down-plays the notion of the three click rule by noting that users’ ability to find products on a e-commerce site actually increased after the design was changed to place the products four clicks from the homepage. I think just human nature alone drives us to continue our search even when we may be turning in circles. Is there anyone that agrees with the three-click rule, or do we all disagree with the rule? If you disagree with the rule, do you have a limit on the amount of clicks before you leave a site because you can’t find the information you’re looking for?
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4 comments:
I don't necessarily agree with the Three-Click Rule. I definitely will search longer, but then again, it depends on my mood. Then, when factoring in the average clicks of users nationwide/worldwide....I'm not sure. Maybe Nielsen meant people will leave because another alternative is always on the bound, however, if I know that i desperately need info from a certain website that no other site can provide...I'll stick around.
I think it depends on what im looking for...if its the first time I stop by a site ill click around for a while...but if its a page im familiar with and then they change the layout or design...id stop after a couple clicks....if I was looking for something on best buy and i couldnt find it in a few clicks id move to circuit city or wal mart or whatever
It depends on what I am looking for if I find it online and it was what I was looking for I would rather get it online and have it shipped and be able to save money on gas instead of going to the store.
"How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop? One... two.. THREE!"
- The Wise Owl
I've never really thought about how many clicks it takes to find what information I'm looking for on a particular website. Maybe it's because the design of certain sites is so good that I don't need to concentrate on how to use it - I just use it (like Nielsen mentions in Chapter 6). So obviously, I'm not literally counting clicks, but I just know or feel when a site starts to get really difficult to navigate - I guess you could call it a "frustration threshhold".
I get sick of searching, and if what I'm trying to find is not that important, I'll try to find it on another site. I will, however, stay on the site longer (as Nick mentions) if I know that what I need is definitely on that site (or if it's really important). So I do agree with Nick (and Nielsen) that the "Three-Click Rule" is not carved in stone. It may just be a matter of user preference (how long they're willing to stay and search on a site), but still, users shouldn't be forced to go looking for something hidden deep within the site.
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