Readable URLs Don’t Matter.
There are a variety of reasons to structure your URLs a certain way, such as making search engines happy, making developers using your service happy, or keeping yourself sane when you build a web site. Providing utility or aesthetic pleasure to regular people who use your web site, however, is not one of them.
So says David Sklar, and I’m inclined to believe him.
URLs & Users » Devan Being Manny
[…] Sklar’s claim that “people don’t care about URLs” (via Full Stop Interactive) seems like a wild overstatement, even taking “people” to mean “average” […]
Devan
At one point, he might have been right, but people who know what’s up with URLs have long been training others, through the kind of informal technical support so many of us give, to pay attention to them. I get a call from one of my parents from time to time saying, “This address looks funny. Should I trust this site?”
(And a slightly longer version: http://www.devangoldstein.com/376/urls-users/ )
Nate
@Devan,
Perhaps. Or maybe URL-shorteners are training people in the other direction. I click this thing, and it takes me somewhere completely unrelated. (At least, that’s what I notice if I’m paying careful attention to the URL bar, which I’m not ready to grant.)
Google has probably done as much research on this as anyone. I’m sure you remember the video they did interviewing people with the question, “What is a browser?” Their conclusion? Merge the search and URL bar since people couldn’t correctly differentiate them anyway. (Standard caveats regarding Google’s search bias apply.)
The bottom line, from my perspective as a developer and user experience advocate is: URL readability is low-priority. Sure, make it pretty if you have the time, otherwise focus on elements that give you more UX bang for your development buck.