The three-click rule

Much has been said about the 3-click rule. Many articles have been written, especially by Web gurus Jacob Nielson and Jared Spool. Let me try to bring my perspective on the topic. A little background: Since the early days of the Web, designers and developers tried to make all their content available within 3 clicks. The rationale was that visitors would browse away from your site if they couldn't get to the information within 3 clicks. Sounds reasonable, but unfortunately, there were many occasions when this rule couldn't possibly apply. A good example (that I credit to Jared Spool) is tech support on the Web. If you are given some sort of wizard (a series of questions) to get you to the right answer, you will most likely have to click on many more than 3 links. The new mentality is that as long as you guide the user through the maze and provide them with clues indicating that they are getting closer to the information, they will remain on the site. When designing your site architecture, ensure that all your content follows a strong trail of clues directing the user to the information they need, even if it may be more then 3 clicks. The right balance of clicks and clues is essential. This is why the information architecture is the most important aspect of the Web design process (after strategic objectives have been determined, of course)