On my website, I have a “Log Out” link in the upper-right header.
Currently, when a user clicks on the link, he/she gets a new screen that says…
Log-Out Succeeded
You have been successfully logged-out.
<Log In> or <Go to Home Page>
… where the last line are two buttons.
Where would you want/expect to be taken when you log out…
1.) Left on the Current Page?
2.) Given a choice to Log-In?
3.) Given a choice to go to Home Page?
4.) Other?
(BTW, I’m not here to debate if you like my “Confirmation Page”, because that is the style I have chosen for all messaging on my website except for Form Errors.)
I think it would depend on what they were doing when they logged out and if they expected to see the same content if they were logged out. Take the Sitepoint forum for example. Say you just wanted to log our for whatever reason but wanted to continue reading a thread that you were looking at. In this regard being taken somewhere else would be irritating.
On the other hand, if the user has sensitive information like an email account or other data that non-logged in users should not be able to see, then sending them to the home page is appropriate. Or just a login page.
I think such a design would require more effort than it’s worth.
Most of my website uses $_SESSION[‘returnToPage’], but that is almost always used in the content of a few scripts working together. (For example, you go to the “Change Details”, I capture that as the “returnToPage”, then if you aren’t logged in, I go to “log-in.php”, which then returns you to “Change Details” via the “returnToPage”.
But I wouldn’t want to just send people to “returnToPage” from anywhere on my website, because there are probably cases where it would give unexpected results.
For now, at least, I guess my thinking is this…
If you are Logging Out, you must have a good reason (e.g. on another person’s computer, changing users) and so if after that happens take you to a page offer “Log In” or “Go to Home Page” you should be satisfied.
Like you said above, what if a person was reading “Postage Meters Can Save You Money”, decided to Log Out, and wanted to continue reading the article?
Well, if they had to navigate back to it manually, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. (It was they that just had to log out in the first place?!)
If Stomme Poes is out there, this seems like something that she’d have a good take on…
I agree with your last point. I think that when you take everything into account, if it would be time consuming to code the site in this way vs the marginal benefit of not inconveniencing a few users, I would opt to just send them home after logging out. I would venture a guess that the majority of users won’t care where they go.
Its better to redirect that page to Homepage where he/she can visit with something new(if added) otherwise put a Login button in Home page alone for relogin.
