Team 6 Principle #3: Desire Line

Desire lines, or desire paths, are traces of use or wear indicating a user’s preferred method of interaction with an object or environment.¹ They are most often associated with walkways, in situations where pedestrians’ repeated traversals of shorter, more direct routes create alternative paths to paved ones. Landscape architects are now starting to embrace desire lines by allowing them to form and then paving over them, instead of predicting behavior and trying to force it with barriers and other constraints.

Desire lines can also be seen in other physical and digital objects, and should be taken into consideration in any user-centered design. A common motto calls for “paving the cowpath,” or supporting what users are already doing.² For example, Twitter hashtags and @mentions grew out of community uses inspired by IRC (internet relay chat).³ Community forums with voting features like Digg and Reddit also indicate users’ preferred posts.¹

Physical examples include ergonomic keyboards that split in the middle and allow wrists to assume a more natural position, and the water fountain spigot designed for water bottles below. Prior to the installation of these faucets, the only way to fill up a water bottle was to tilt it sideways, a less efficient and more annoying method.

Footnotes

¹ Lidwell, William, Kritina Holden, Jill Butler, and Kimberly Elam. Universal Principles of Design: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach Through Design. Beverly, Mass: Rockport Publishers, 2010. Print.

² “Pave the Cowpaths – Social Patterns – Designing Social Interfaces.” 13 Aug. 2013, http://designingsocialinterfaces.com/patterns/Pave_the_Cowpaths.

³ “Least Resistance: How Desire Paths Can Lead to Better Design – 99 ….” 25 Jan. 2016, https://99percentinvisible.org/article/least-resistance-desire-paths-can-lead-better-design/.