What is the recommended number of click before information is available to user

Question

Few years back i read an article that information should be available within 3 click and there is ambiguity regarding same to limit it to 3 click or more.

Let us say i want to show same information to user is two ways

Option 1:

1. Project Category List Page: This page has list of categories.
2. Project Sub Category List Page: This page has list of Projects Sub category.
3. Project list page: This page has list of all projects and we show about 12 projects on this page and if there are more than 12 projects then user has to navigate to other pages to find the projects.
4. Project Details Page: This project has details related to the project

** So in option one user have to click to go through at-least 3 pages before he can see the actual project related page

Option 2

Project Category List Page: On this page i will have Multiple dropdown so that user can filter information based on Project Category, Project Sub Category and sort information in Year.

**To me this page is better option as user can filter information and get find related projects quickly.

So which approach is recommend and should we limit number of click as lot of users now a days use mobile phone to access website and navigating from page to page can be a bad user experience (This is my opinion)

Which is best way & recommended way

Answer 1

I do recommend the same and Option 2 is a way better than in terms of User Experience. Number of clicks is just a part of the User Experience and so the main focus should be the over all User Experience.

For your website, the option 2 can have the less page reloads before user reaches to the information he needs. So that's the best option. Furthermore I can suggest that the Filters should be designed in such a way that they are inspired to use them in order to get the project they want. Because, sometimes if the users are not properly educated using the filters can be frustrated and may leave the website.

Answer 2

Number of click is not an issue, most of users don't mind a lot of clicks as long as each click is painless and they have continued confidence that they are on the right track. It's called "sent of information". (I quote here Steve Krug from his book "Don't make me think" - excelllent reading to learn what user experience is.)

Answer 3

As far as I remember back 15 years ago, there was a consensus of 4 clicks :) but as mentioned above it does not have a real application everywhere. As a source for UX I strongly recommend readings such as https://www.nngroup.com/topic/applications/ or https://www.smashingmagazine.com/category/uxdesign/

My 2 cents.