The thing that makes me crazy is when sites don't follow the design convention of using the main site branding or logo being a constant link throughout the site to the site's "front door." I don't see these pages as being a "home" as much as I see them as an essential navigational portal into the site. I don't need a "home" link, so long as the primary logo on the site always goes there.
What I mean to say is, neglecting that portal and the navigational structures present in it is tantamount to neglecting any portal, from Deep Space Nine to 90s search engines. They are gatekeepers and also crucial for SEO. But most importantly, to neglect a site's primary portal is to presume that your navigational structures are perfectly understandable for all audiences at all times (even when people surf drunk or stoned?), so they can NEVER get lost, will never need the equivalent of a "reset" button, which is what a home page really is, for when people try to find something on a site, and get confused and lost along the way, and their only recourse is to go back to where they started and retrace their steps (or, the final fallback position, try Google). Chris On Feb 3, 2008 10:03 AM, Micah Freedman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Does anyone have any research and/or rules-of-thumb about the > usefulness of putting "home" in the permanent navigation? I tend to > want to leave it off because A) on most sites, I feel like once the > user is in the site, there's not really much of a reason for them to > go home, and B) The "click on the logo to go home" pattern seems > universal enough that everyone *should* know about it. OTOH, I can > easily imagine "Aunt Tilly" looking for the home link and getting > confused if it's not there. Are there times when it should be used? > Times when it shouldn't? Times when it's optional? > > -Micah > ________________________________________________________________ > *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* > February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA > Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
