Should I have a "Home" button? User testing article

[ralph.m]

when you on homepage,there is no need to have that button but when you are not on homepage,the button should appear.

this is my opinion.

You cold argue that for any page, though. And to have a different menu on every page would be quite confusing.

[Stomme poes]

I did two user tests yesterday, on the page that doesn't have a home button (tho I later added one to the footer, but apparently nobody sees the footer lawlz).

One tester was a button/link clicker, while the other was a back-button user. Both users started their first tasks from the main page (with our site, Google *does* offer the main page 99% of the time).

The button clicker went for the logo right away (because I directed him to the main page to start a different task), while the other user always used the back button until she got to the main page.

It was interesting to see how often they navigated back to the main page themselves when looking around for stuff, even though all the possible options are in the main large menu (which they also used, but they both seemed to prefer looking at the main page when given a "find X" task).

Unfortunately one user already works for us and already knew some stuff a real user wouldn't know (there was a bug in the back-end which allowed all-risk insurance on a vehicle older than 5 years, and the first tester announced "that's not right, you can't do that"). I would love to get an older person (or 3) who has owned a vehicle (neither of my testers have ever owned or insured a vehicle, meaning some of the terms a real client would know were not entirely certain to them) and especially someone I could give the task of "your child just got a vehicle: insure it for them but under your name". This is where I think the most confuzle-ments are, yet I cannot test this well.

PEOPLE COME TEST FOR ME I HAVE COOKIES

[xhtmlcoder]

Poes, are they home-made cookies? I'd be a test candidate but unless you have an English version you might have issues.

[Stomme poes]

I'd be a test candidate but unless you have an English version you might have issues.

Even if translated to English, we still assume Dutch ppl who've purchased/thinking of purchasing a vehicle and know what "lawfully-required responsibility-insurance" is versus "lawfully-required responsibility-insurance plus" versus "casco all-risk".

[xhtmlcoder]

In Britain it is essentially; Third Party only insurance, or Comprehensive insurance (full cover).

[goldfidget]

Slightly off topic, I recently created a page with no home button, no top logo and no navigation. The idea being that it was an article site. Each page was an article, and Google was the home page. People would get to the articles by search, and each article would stand on it's own merits.

Interestingly it didn't do well in the SERPs, presumably because Google was not able to navigate it. When I added a home link (by making the header h1 clickable) I saw a jump in rankings.

[deathshadow60]

Interestingly it didn't do well in the SERPs, presumably because Google was not able to navigate it. When I added a home link (by making the header h1 clickable) I saw a jump in rankings.

Not too surprising though -- EXACTLY what I would have expected in fact. Google indexes pages by links on a page -- if you have no links, it's not going to sit there randomly typing values into your search form.

No links == no listings of sub-pages... or even the main page. I believe Google in fact ignores link-less pages assuming that they are actually meant to be showed in frames, or something to that effect.

With no links to any of the sub-pages, there's no way for search engines to spider the site -- so your SERPS are gonna be bad... really bad.

[yesica]

Yes, but you can also put the link of your homepage in your logo or at the header if you dont want to add a home button so everytime users click your header they will be directed to your homepage

[tom_tom_10]

when you on homepage,there is no need to have that button but when you are not on homepage,the button should appear.

this is my opinion.

An option but I think a top-level navigation menu should stay consistent.

Personally for me current page links should be styled differently and optionally disable the link although I prefer to keep it in just for any indexing benefits it might have (although I have no evidence to confirm this!).

[agiletechnosys11]

Yes you should have..., People are used to it now and if you didn't put it your visitors will find it like some thing missing....

[boroova]

Many web designers assume that users would think in the same way as they do. This is the biggest mistake one can make. When designing a website, one must remember that world is full of different people who behave differently to one another. Therefore, having a "home" button in a menu, AS WELL AS a link in the logo (and maybe even in the breadcrumbs and footer) is a good idea. you should never assume that "they will certainly click here...". Whatever you can do to ease the navigation for the user, the better it will be for their experience of your site - and this is what we are all after, aren't we?

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[rltv2011]

For me is very important the homepage link in the Logo and a "Home" button. Just check Sitepoint page! They have all I mentioned!

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[Bannaz]

I would build a site with no assumptions and always include both a 'home' button, along with linking up the logo to the homepage.

[HIG-Jerry]

We use one and our heatmaps show it's used.

[AirFor]

I think it should always be included. Spoon feed.

[sophieschoice]

I am a bit on the fence with this one. At one of my websites the home button on the home page is indeed used, while Jakob Nielsen says his studies showed it only confused people and you shouldn't do it.

Sigh.

[SpacePhoenix]

With a site I'm coding I'll be having at least two places the users can click to get to the home page:

* clicking the site logo
* homepage link in the crumb trail

I'll probably also add a button somewhere else (possibly the main navigation menu).

[Stomme poes]

...while Jakob Nielsen says his studies showed it only confused people and you shouldn't do it.

Well, he worries about buttons that won't take people anywhere. But if you highlight it, or otherwise make it obvious that you are on the home page, (and/or make the home button not a button anymore), it should be fine.

Also some of his Alerts are from like 2004 and older. While basic human usability doesn't necessarily change much, people's expectations of web sites do change over time.

I don't think you'll throw your users into a spiral of confusion with a normal home button : )