Desire Lines

A university builds new paths — straight, elegant, paved. Within a month, the students have worn a diagonal dirt track across the lawn. The planners eventually give in and pave the track. They should have watched first and paved second.

These worn tracks are called desire lines: the paths people actually walk, as opposed to the paths they were assigned.

The lesson runs through every design in life. You can lecture people about the correct way, or you can watch where their feet go. The document nobody reads, the shortcut everyone takes, the feature customers use wrongly and happily — each is a desire line, a truthful vote cast by behaviour while words were making speeches.

When your rules keep being broken, consider that the rules may be wrong and the feet right. Behaviour is data. The dirt track across your beautiful lawn is not an insult to your design. It is the design, reporting for duty.