January 3, 2007

Home or Homeless?

January 3, 2007, 10:00 PM | 4 Comments

Earlier this week a few colleagues and I were discussing the merits of having (or not having) a “home” link in a site’s main navigation. More specifically we discussed whether or not the now standard practice of linking a website’s logo back to the home page is a good enough substitute for not having a specifically labeled home link. We ended up having a fairly good dialogue in which several opinions and points were raised, but I thought I’d take it one step further and open up the topic for discussion here.

Until that conversation I’d honestly never given the matter much thought, but I’ve almost always included a home link by force of habit. After discussing it for a little while, I discovered my feelings on the issue are somewhat indifferent. If forced to make an actual decision on the matter though, I’d have to say that I think that a site’s navigation is better and easier to use with a distinct link to the home page than without.

The main reason I think the home link should be included is strictly from a usability standpoint. First, I think that a site’s home page is a distinct area of a site and therefore should have a place in its navigation. Secondly, even if the site’s logo is linked to the home page (which it probably should be considering it’s now expected across the board*) I don’t think that’s really enough. Often times, the logo of a site is in a different area of its design (or even its source) than its navigation is. Because that link to the home page is a navigation item, it just makes sense to have it grouped with the rest of the navigation. Whether you call the item “Home”, “Main” or anything else signifying the default page is trivial, but it should probably be there nonetheless.

Anyways, my thought was that most “regular” users who are visiting a site are not aware of the fact that clicking on a site’s logo will actually return them to the home page. After doing a quick poll of few regular type people, I found that their general response was to “click the back button” or look for a home link to get back to the home page. Every time I mentioned clicking on a site’s logo the response I got was the same: “I didn’t know you could do that.”

So what do you think? Should there be an explicit home link in a site’s navigation? Go ahead and ask your parents, non-geeky friends, or other “regular” users that you know what they would do to get back to a site’s home page, you’ll probably be surprised at some of the responses, not that it’s a bad thing at all. As web professionals we tend to get accustomed to certain conventions and get the idea that everyone shares this common knowledge, but that’s simply not the case. Sometimes it’s good It’s always good to review our assumptions and make sure we stay tuned to how the average internet user is using the sites we create.

* I did my research for this post when I was about half way done writing it and apparently the practice is only “expected across the board” by those in web development circles.

Posted in: Web Development