Remember the 3 click rule? The idea that if users cannot find their information in less than 3 clicks they will have an aneurism?

I always took this principle on board with a degree of scepticism. Why? ’cause I have constantly found myself at exactly the wrong place on a number of different website that have been built with this in mind. Although I have tried to find the most appropriate link on each page, I constantly found myself lost. Why? Websites built with this restriction have made it a priority over an effective and logical information model. Pages that should not be grouped have been, often with quite similar page titles in an attempt to reduce the depth, making it easy to click on the “wrong” link.

I am quite relieved that someone actually took the time to investigate this and they conclude that while it could be a good thing to keep this in mind when creating a website, there is no proof that the 3 click rule actually holds any merit.