People have this annoying habit of exercising their free will.

Landscape architects are painfully aware of this:

This human desire to take the easiest and quickest route is sometimes called:

• The Desire Path
• The Desire Line
• Normal Usage
• Being a Lazy Git.

This doesn’t stop with municipal parks though – the Desire Line is very much present in users’ on-site behavour. Take a look at your in-page analytics (or if you can afford it, heatmap data) to visually reveal the paths your users choose to take through your site:

Chances are your users’ on-site desire lines don’t quite match what you desire them to do!