Whats the best way to get there? Is it "Point A to Point B ?" In design, management, logistics and almost every other discipline, multiple pathways help customers and employees feel happy. Lets take marketing. Most agencies use multiple mediums to connect with customers. Why? Because more than one channel means they can get more of the message. Lets look at logistics now. In this area of transportation, its good to have multiple routes and hops to get your container where it needs to go. Weather, detours, change of plans are all causes of plan B, C and D. As a strong proponent of collaboration, multiple pathways in the office can do good too. Not only does multiple pathways reduce the space between the cubes and copiers, multiple paths to the same area like the break room cause people to "bump" into each other. It almost forces employees that never talk to one another to say something. That something is what spurs informal networks, the critical part of innovation.

Steve Jobs basically designed this building. In the center, he created this big atrium area, which seems initially like a waste of space. The reason he did it was that everybody goes off and works in their individual areas. People who work on software code are here, people who animate are there, and people who do designs are over there. Steve put the mailboxes, the meetings rooms, the cafeteria, and, most insidiously and brilliantly, the bathrooms in the center—which initially drove us crazy—so that you run into everybody during the course of a day. [Jobs] realized that when people run into each other, when they make eye contact, things happen. So he made it impossible for you not to run into the rest of the company.

Multiple paths work in web apps and websites too. An important part of accessibility is access and users should be able to get to things through multiple paths. People usually know right down to the T how the navigation should be drawn, and at one time my previous design group did too. Popular items can be on the home page too. We used to make the client names link to the projects. Usually people want to see who you have worked work with but sometimes they want to see your projects first. Now they can get to it from the clients page and the portfolio page.

Labels: design, informal networks, multiple paths