Testing the Three-Click Rule for Navigation

May 16, 2003

One of the most often heard complaints from users on websites, is that it takes too long to find things. They tell us that if they didn't have to click so much to find things that they could find things easier and reduce their overall frustration. Companies have been very mindful of these complaints, given the fact that if users get frustrated and can't find what they are looking for, the competition is sure to be only one click away.

This common complaint has impacted navigation design from the beginning of the web in the form of what is commonly referred to as the "Three-Click Rule." Essentially this rule translates into a mantra that every piece of content should be no more than three clicks away from the site's home page. However, recent research by Jared Spool's User Interface Engineering sheds some doubt on whether the Three-Click Rule is really effective in addressing this particular area of user frustration.

In their research, they tested whether users will really leave a site after 3 clicks. What they found after analyzing +8000 clicks was users did not leave a site after more than 3 clicks nor did their level of frustration dramatically increase if they did not navigate to content after the magic number 3. In many cases the study found that people successfully completed their tasks after 25 clicks or more with little decrease in overall satisfaction with their experience with the web site.

So what does all this research tell us about user frustration? Users often complain about how long it takes to find things and complaining about the number of clicks is one way to vocalize their frustration. When users find what they want (whether it was 3 clicks or 25 clicks) they do not complain about the number of clicks. In the end it is not necessarily important how many clicks a user has to go through to complete a task, but whether or not they were successful in finding what they were looking for in the first place. Unfortunately, strictly adhering to the Three Click Rule will not be the panacea to address user frustrations with navigation.