Fewest steps
Every click, tap, open or reply the system could have saved is a break.
What it means
A step is any action a person takes to move forward: a click, a tap, opening something, a reply. The system takes the person where it already knows they are going. When the system knew the next place and still asked for the action, that action is a break.
The test
Walk the artefact from its first screen or line to the moment the person’s question is answered, and count every action on the way. For each one, ask whether the system already knew where the person was going. Each yes is a break. Clicks are counted as the measuring page sets out, and a named create passes at 3 clicks or fewer with 1 typed field, the reviewer’s audit threshold (comparison, line 2035).
Levers by surface
| Surface | What counts as a step here |
|---|---|
| Screen | Opening a page, a tab or a record, closing a panel, a click, a navigation, a confirmation. Records open into the table’s detail, and the detail shows the next action without another click. A form lands on the record it created. After an action the screen moves to its result, so the person sees that it worked. |
| A reply, a click on a link, a login before the action. The one button opens the page where the action happens. | |
| Form | Each page of the form, each submit, and the trip back to the record afterwards. |
| Document | Each link or page the reader opens before finding the answer. |
Research
The reviewer’s first rule reads: “As few clicks as possible”. One of the reviewer’s findings on an ordering system shows the cost: “Once I sent to review, why do I have to click on ‘Count’ review to go see it (why doesn’t it already reloads into there (it would assure the user that it worked as they could see the review, and it would save one click)”.
Intuit’s email guide applies the same principle to email: one clear call to action that links to the customer’s Actions page.