Desire paths

It's not the first time I've seen photos like these used to make a point about usability/(non) user-centred design, but it is an amusing collection of photos and I do love the name: "Desire Paths".

Apart from making me homesick for my native green and grassy England, basically it brings us around again to the idea that if something is not useful or usable, people will find a way around it. If you're going to make people work harder than they need to, think again! And, despite the "correct route" being blindingly obvious to designers, planners etc, it doesn't mean that users are going to "see" it!

These are clear examples of the need for user observation, common sense and user-centred design.

The group says the inspiration came from a book by Nick Crane 'Two degrees west' (Viking 1999):

Claire was photographing desire paths... the imprints of 'foot anarchists', individuals who had trodden their own routes into the landscape, regardless of the intentions of government, planners and engineers... They were expressions of free will, 'paths with a passion', an alternative to the strictures of railings, fences and walls that turned individuals into powerless apathetic automatons.

Call me unromantic, but I'm not so sure about footpath anachism and expressions of free will so much as the practicalities of getting from A to B!

Thanks to the Desire Paths flickr group and to John Gibbard on the IxDA mailing list for bringing this collection to my attention.