Websites are full of compromises. They provide a general view that caters for the majority. However, we know you don’t always want what the majority wants.
Your interests are different from your neighbour’s, and probably different from your partner’s, friends’ or family’s. We also know that if we update the navigation on our site, then finding your regular topics again can be frustrating as you learn where everything is – particularly for those of you changing from our old site to the new one.
We want to embrace different tastes, so we’ve introduced “recently visited” links under ‘all sections’ that help you find the topics you’ve visited in the past. If you’re not already using the beta, you can see this by switching to our beta site.
Here are my own recently visited links:
Yours probably look a lot different, but that’s ok!
How does this work?
As you read articles and navigate to different topics across the Guardian site, we ask your browser to keeps a record of the sections you visit.
We display up to 10 of these topics back to you, as shortcuts to return to easily.
I’ve never visited that stuff!
Do you share a computer with someone else? If so, you might get mixed results. We will explore ways in which we can link this to your signed-in account in the future. You can remove the links you don’t like by clicking the ‘x’ on each one.
I don’t like them. Can I switch them off?
You can. Just click on the ‘edit’ button or visit the preferences page. Delete them individually or switch the feature off entirely.
Please tell us why you don’t like them as well; leave a comment below. Are they showing the wrong content, or are they just not useful? Drop a note to userhelp@theguardian.com with any issues.
I love them. How can I let you know?
Feel free to comment below or drop me a tweet!
What about my privacy?
We respect your privacy and your shortcuts will never be made public. You can easily remove individual items or turn the functionality off completely. If you clear your browser cookies and storage, then these will automatically disappear. Read more about our cookie policy here.
What’s this about cowpaths?
‘Paving the cowpaths’ is a term initially used to describe making common paths easier to travel along. Folklore suggests it comes from the urban planning, or apparent lack thereof, in Boston. It suggests the scrambled road system through the city was implemented by simply paving the most common routes.
Whether that’s true or not, it’s a term that’s used commonly in describing a good user experience practice. This can also be described as a ‘desire path’ or ‘desire line’.
When we’re designing for our users we want to provide paths that are natural to each individual visitor and we don’t want you to have to re-learn the site if it changes. If you have already navigated to a particular subject area, we want you to be able to find it again easily.
Our navigation reflects the subjects we think are important, but we also know that everyone has their own preferences. We try to cater for both.
