Universal Principles of Design, Revised and Updated

Desire Line

Traces of use or wear that indicate preferred methods of interaction with an object or environment.1

Desire lines generally refer to worn paths where people naturally walk — the beaten path that trails off the sidewalk, usually as a shortcut to a destination — but can be applied more broadly to any signs or traces of user activity in an object or environment. The implicit claim of desire lines is that they represent an unbiased indication of how an object or environment is actually used by people, which is valuable information that can be applied to the design or, in some cases, redesign of the object or environment. For example, the reconstruction of paths in New York City’s Central Park was based on paving desire lines that were ...