As it is with foot traffic, some online visitors are observant and content to follow the path you\u2019ve set forth. Your job is to make the signs they follow easy to see and understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other online visitors are easily frustrated. They don\u2019t want to exert a whole lot of effort trying to figure out your navigation. They\u2019re in a hurry. They want more control over the customer journey. The better you can serve or sway those visitors, and the less friction involved in doing so, the more they\u2019ll convert into a lead or purchase from you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An understanding of online desire paths can help you construct a user experience pathway to guide visitors on their way to becoming customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, we\u2019ll consider how land planners are learning big lessons in design from those crowd-generated shortcuts. Then, we\u2019ll talk about how you can use online desire paths to boost conversions, sales and customer satisfaction<\/a> through an improved user experience on your ecommerce or lead-generation website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to know what your customers want\u2026 watch what they do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Pathways to Parks Project<\/a> seeks to identify spaces and paths that would lend themselves to conversion into public-centered spaces. Their philosophy is that people are best served when walkways and rest stops are built to serve the user\u2026 not vice versa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, a vacant lot pedestrians cut across to save travel time on foot can become a brick path with benches and shade. Unused corners of a rooftop parking garage can be converted into viewing areas and leisure spaces. The multidisciplinary contributors to the project are both active and proactive in their work: they don\u2019t just plan things for people; they let the people show them how to draw up the plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brazil\u2019s capital city is a picture-perfect planned city. From the air, one can see the shape of an airplane \u2013 with government buildings located in the cockpit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Designed in the 1950\u2019s, Brasillia is a marvel of urban intelligence\u2026 except the planners imagined ready access to vehicles would do away with the public\u2019s desire for walking. The 1970\u2019s fascination with running on purpose (jogging) would\u2019ve been laughable 20 years prior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, the utopian dream of a new car in every driveway and an unlimited supply of cheap fuel has thus far failed to materialize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consequently, the Brasilia of today is criss-crossed with desire paths, and the problems those paths create (an extraordinarily high rate of cars killing pedestrians, for instance) are giving urban planners and university classes everywhere a case study in what happens when the public doesn\u2019t like the architect’s\u2019 decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Brasilia case study is providing an opportunity for planners and students to learn from the world\u2019s greatest teachers: actual users of the space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thegood.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/digital-desire-paths-01-1024x530.jpg\")
Desire Paths Show Us What People Want<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thegood.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/digital-desire-paths-08.jpg\")
Even the best-laid plans can fail in time<\/h3>\n\n\n\n