Two years ago I wrote about the use of a ‘Home’ link in the navigation of a site and had this to say:
The Information Architecture of a site is something that gets overlooked by designers for various reasons. One of the lastest IA mistakes that I am beginning to see popup is the lack of a “home” link in the navigation. Many times the logo takes the place of a Home tab, but I don’t think it should be used as a substitute.
One of the problems that we designers have is that we assume that users understand that web like we do. However, I have found myself many times looking for the “home” link only to remind myself a couple seconds later that I should try to click on the logo. I can only imagine the trouble that non-expert users would have.
Now looking at the designs of sites like Work Boxers I see that there is no home link at all. Granted I didn’t design the site (Rundle did), but I find that I am not looking for a home link at all. I have to assume that’s because I don’t navigate those sites like a normal user, but I am certainly not missing the home link by any means so I have to wonder if my words from two years ago still hold true for me today.
The Information Architecture of these sites isn’t the greatest by any means simply because the navigation relies solely on the categories list on the side. Over time the design will evolve to help readers navigate the site more efficiently, but I have to open the question of do you see the need for an obvious ‘Home’ link anywhere on the site? Am I counting on people to simply click the logo and for newbies to press the back button too much? If they land on an internal page and don’t know how to get ‘Home’ that presents a major issue. Hell, I might have just answered my own question but I would love to hear your thoughts.
Originally posted on January 24, 2006 @ 2:43 pm