Three Click Rule, Experience and advise Options

[tomsk]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that a customer should be in a position to buy your product in at least 3 clicks

I am within the next month or so changing a text heavy website into a more this is the product – this is how much it costs – this is what it does – and you can buy it here.

Not all sites should be the same I just wondered if people had opinions on for example a buy it know button on every single page, flash on every page showing rotating images of all products.

Not the hard sell – but not a soft sell if that makes sense.

[Hyperformance]

Hey tomsk

I am not really sure where that originated?

I remember keeping in mind that "Once landing, a user should find what they are looking for in no more than 3 clicks" This was quite a few years back too... and they were referencing coming into the site from the Home page.

This is much more realistic and works really well to keep it in mind...

I believe this also covers the option to purchase (what you looked for) - but IT was not necessarily one of the users 3 clicks to arrive theory... know what I mean?

Today however, this is shortened (or should be IMO) when the user searched for exactly what they wanted and your url should have skipped the home page etc., and brought that prospect directly to that product page from GYM (Google,Yahoo!, Microsoft). - Because it was well SEO'd (the page)... I think this leans more towards "ideal" too, but it works best (IMO) to have the least amount of clicks as possible, - whether it be to the testimonials they are seeking, or to the purchase page itself, it should all be user friendly and online buyer centric.

- Scott

[Randy]

The old three click rule has indeed been around forever. You even see it mentioned as a rule --with some good, common sense reasons-- with regard to making a site search engine friendly and crawlable. eg Every page you want to be indexed and stand a decent chance of ranking should be able to be reached within 3 clicks from the home page.

Search engines and their bots are one thing. I think the rule holds up pretty well there, though it is still far too general.

However when it comes to Real Humans, you do not control where they start their journey. Nor do you control their mood, their personality or the amount of time they may or may not have at the specific moment they're viewing your site for the first time.

For a simple sales process I'd hazard to guess that the old three click rule might be a decent starting point. But nothing more than a starting point. However it certainly cannot be applied across the board for every site. There are tons of sites out there where the latency rate, or length of time that passes from the first hit to the final purchase, is not only significantly over three clicks, but may well be more than three months.

It's an individual thing that needs to be tested for each site.

[Michael Martinez]

A lot of bad Web site structures have been devised because of the three-click rule. For smaller sites it's okay to say you want everything to be within three clicks from home. For larger sites that's just not possible (or, to make it possible you have to put a ridiculous number of links on your pages).

The best guideline is to make it as quick and painless as possible for any visitor to accomplish their task regardless of where they enter your site. Good site search, good HTML site maps, good multiple navigation structures help you accomplish that objective.

Don't overlook the value of getting the customer to the transaction quickly by artificially adhering to a rule that makes sense for some people and less sense for others.

And there are people who insist you have to keep everything within three clicks of home for the search engines. That's not true, either, unless you're incapable of attracting (or building) links from other sites to your deeper content. If you get deep links from external sources you don't have to worry about placing everything three clicks from home.

Perspectives change based on site size and link profile, as well as on how the site flows for the visitor. For example, if you have content hidden behind login screens the three clicks from home rule really doesn't matter -- you just need to make sure people can get to where they want to go quickly and conveniently.

[Jill]

I don't think the rule is (or should be) 3 clicks from the home page but 3 clicks from any page.

It's a decent rule for most sites, but there are of course always exceptions depending on the site and the page in question.

[tomsk]

Thanks for responses

[noel_x99]

You might want to read Jakob Nielsen's book, Prioritizing Web Usability . He talks about the three click rule and so much more.

Michael pretty much summed it up. A lot of bad navigation had been created because people design for three clicks. While you do want to minimize clicks, it's more important to make sense.

[Halfdeck]

One of my favorite sites is newegg.com. I've spent thousands of bucks there despite the fact that I usually don't get to a sales page in three clicks. The reason I love the UI is refinements that stack. For example, if I want to buy a plasma TV, I'd go to Plasma TV, then refine that to Panasonic, 50 inches, 1080p, at $1500~$2000 price range. Then there are a few more clicks from there to the sales page. That's like nearly 10 clicks. But the UI makes buying stuff like motherboards and GPU fans a no-brainer even for first time buyers. So from a user's perspective IMO the question is "is it easy to find what I want or does it feel like looking for a needle in a heystack?" If people can't find what they want or get lost and frustrated in the process they'll just leave.

This post has been edited by Randy: Jul 18 2008, 07:31 AM

Reason for edit: Links removed per forum rules.

[tomsk]

Its a lot harder than you would think to get it right and I think your post halfdeck hits home for me - I would not buy from that site it to me has no soul very clinical.

What’s the expression - one mans drink is another mans poison.