We got some pretty good statistical data on the use of our Home link at my
last company. Our corporate portal had both an explicit Home link, plus the
logo did the same thing.
Previously, only our logo was linked. We added the Home link to help new
employees a little more, who might not have assumed our logo linked to home.
After about a year and a half after the new design was launched, we did a
statistical analysis of banner links over a 3 month period (so, the design
had "burned in" for awhile). Our data came from Omniture Sitecatalyst and
several user studies over that period.
We found the Home link was the least clicked link in the banner, with
something like less than 1-2% of clicks for the entire banner (the primary
nav consisted of about 9-10 visible links, with several popup menus of 5-10
items each.
We ultimately decided the Home link *could* be removed. On the other hand,
we weren't terribly pressed for space, and got only 1-2 complaints about it
being there over the whole period ("why do you have 2 links to the home page
on every page of the portal???").
If it's feasible and not terribly distracting, I have seen some sites add a
tiny word "Home" inside or very close to their logo, to reinforce the fact
you can use it to go home. That would free up space in your prime nav. It
wouldn't work for all logos, and some brand police (ours in particular)
would have a fit if you modified the logo in any way.
Hope this helps...
Bryan
http://www.bryanminihan.com
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Micah
Freedman
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2008 10:04 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [IxDA Discuss] "home" links
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
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