Question

I’m designing a hosted software-as-a-service application that’s like a highly specialized version of 37Signal’s Highrise product. In that context, where SEO is a non-issue, is it worth implementing “pretty URLs” instead of going with numeric IDs (e.g. customers/john-smith instead of customers/1234)? I notice that a lot of web applications don’t bother with them unless they provide a real value (e.g. e-commerce apps, blogs – things that need SEO to be found via search engines)

Answer 1

It’s always worth it if you just have the time to do it right.

• Friendly-urls look a lot nicer and they give a better idea where the link will lead. This is useful if the link is shared eg. via instant message.
• If you’re searching for a specific page from browser history, human readable url helps.
• Friendly url is a lot easier to remember (useful in some cases).
• Like said earlier, it is also a lot easier to communicate verbally (needed more often than you’d think).
• It hides unnecessary technical details from the user. In one case where user id was visible in the url, several users asked why their user id is higher than total amount of users. No damage done, but why have a confused user if you can avoid it.