{"id":1166,"date":"2019-08-13T09:02:04","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T14:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/mannj\/?p=1166"},"modified":"2019-08-13T09:02:23","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T14:02:23","slug":"the-3-click-rule-is-a-myth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/mannj\/2019\/08\/13\/the-3-click-rule-is-a-myth\/","title":{"rendered":"The “3-Click Rule” is a myth"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This often-quoted maxim about the power of propaganda is attributed to some of history’s most notorious figures, its uncertain origin giving it a sort of meta irony.<\/p>\n

Every few months, someone brings up the “3-Click Rule” to me. It’s the idea that some piece of information should not be more than three clicks from the home page. Usually they hear this as a recommendation from a speaker at a conference. Sometimes it comes from a more authoritative source, such as an accrediting agency, or is even presented as a legal requirement.<\/p>\n

Like the quote above, no one knows who invented the 3-Click Rule, but it has been around for a very long time. It has been repeated by so many people in so many forums for so many years that it has become ingrained as a well-known truth. It sounds like a simple, reasonable rule to follow, but the truth is more complicated:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The 3-Click Rule is not an actual rule of web design, not part of any official standard, and not backed up by data.<\/li>\n
  2. The 3-Click Rule does not make information easier to find. Something can be three clicks from the home page and still difficult to locate.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Instead of following this arbitrary rule, we should have well-organized content, clear page titles and headings, and a logical navigational structure that makes it easier for people to find what they need.<\/p>\n

    For more information, read this article from the Nielsen Norman Group:
    \nThe 3-Click Rule for Navigation is False<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.” This often-quoted maxim about the power of propaganda is attributed to some of history’s most notorious figures, its uncertain origin giving it a sort of meta irony. Every few months, someone brings up the “3-Click Rule” to me. It’s the idea that some piece of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/mannj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1166"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/mannj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/mannj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/mannj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/mannj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1166"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/mannj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1168,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/mannj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1166\/revisions\/1168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/mannj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/mannj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/mannj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}