Mental models/Desire Lines
Flow & Navigation

Desire Lines

Paths created by erosion caused by human or animal traffic, representing the most intuitive route. In UX, the navigation patterns users create when the designed path doesn't match their mental model.

In plain language

The paths users actually take, as opposed to the paths designers intended. Desire lines reveal the gap between designed flow and natural behaviour.

In the wild

Implementations of this model aren’t wired to this view yet — they live in the implementations table.

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