Home Pages and Navigation
The folks at Plumbline Studios just posted an article a few weeks ago, Just Click the Logo! which argues that web sites should to the home page from a logo image and not include an explicit "Home" link in the navigation. I've worked with Plumbline a few times and respect the work that they do but in this instance I have to disagree with them.
The article is in response to those clients that don't know to click on a site logo to get to the home page and insist on having a home page link. I would agree that generally people overstate the importance of a web site home page. A home page should get people off the that page and into the deeper content of the site. Unfortunately stakeholders in a web design often become obsessed with that page to the detriment of more crucial parts of the site. Even though it may not be the most important page, there are still many good reasons for including a global link to home.
A home page often serves as a sign post, showing visitors the way to points of interest. after visiting one of these points, visitors may want to revisit the sign post to find where else to go. Plumbline's post states that "in the case of an editorial or news site, there is usually something new to see when you hit the home page" and only for those sites a link back there would make sense. This assumes that for other sites, the visitor sees the home page first. What about search traffic? Search engines drive visitors to any page of a site that matches their search, often bypassing the home page entirely. At that point they may very well want to check out the home page, because they've never seen it before.
Another argument Plumbline makes is that the home link "entices the user to back out" of the site content rather than drilling deeper in. (Entices? Really? I don't think I've ever been enticed by a simple textual home link to do anything at all.) This is the same argument I've heard against including external links on a web site – that you are encouraging the user to stray from the path you've chosen for them and leave your site entirely. The truth is that the user is always one click away from leaving your site and the only way to keep them there is to hold their interest in what you have to offer. If the user stops digging into the content of a site it's because she isn't interested in what she's found or is looking for something else. In that case going back to the home page may provide another path through the site that could be more useful.
Even if getting to the home page is useful, why include a textual link in the navigation? Isn't a link on the logo good enough? After all this behavior is a widespread design convention and people should know that clicking the logo takes them to the home page. But they don't. Even the author of Plumbline's post admits "I find myself explaining to people that to get home, they just click the dang logo. Is it not intuitive?" Well clearly not intuitive enough.
It makes sense that for a designer clicking on a logo is easy – it requires responding to a visual image based on its character and position. But not everybody is as visually oriented as your average designer - there are more verbally focused users who scan the words on a page to orient themselves. For these people text can be more useful than imagery (especially if the imagery is not clearly representing the desired action).
Text link or logo link? The answer is going to be different for different web sites, but there's arguments to be made on both sides. Plumbline presents a good case for the a logo link – I hope I've balanced the issue a little here.
