A lesson from the road: The quickest way is not always the best way.

I had an interesting experience on the road last week that made me think of how the decisions we make as travellers should affect website design.

Before going to visit a potential client I plugged their address into Google Maps to see how to get there, and I was suprised to see the route that it showed.

To me, the obvious path seemed to be straight up the highway and then down a major road that their business is on. But Google said the quicker and shorter way was along a series of smaller back roads.

I pegged out the route I thought better on the map and found that it was several kilometres longer and would take me three minutes more.

Yet, despite the time and distance saving, I didn't take the shorter route. It looked too confusing on the map and I haven't been that way before. Instead I took the path that was easier to understand.

During my extra two minutes of drive time I pondered my decision. It occured to me that the principle of 'the easiest path' applies to website design and other forms of interface design as much as driving.

People don't want to think about how they're 'travelling' through your website. They don't want to make decisions and have to follow instructions. Just like my driving route, they'd rather not think about it. So they'll choose the easy path even if it's longer or less efficient, as long as they get what they want without thinking about it.

This is one of the reasons that even when we build creative or beautiful websites we still always keep some standard familiar elements. Navigation menus, shopping carts, breadcrumbs, search boxes - these are all things that have a standard format within people's minds and which should not be changed beyond recognition.

Because even if what you come up with is better, that doesn't mean people will like it. They will choose whatever is the easiest path for them.