

Ask HN: Should we have an explicit 'Home' link in our site's nav? - tempestn

Or is the logo enough?<p>We&#x27;re redesigning the results page for www.autotempest.com to turn it into more of a one-page web app (ie kayak.com for cars).  The &#x27;app page&#x27; will have a different layout and a similar but different style from the homepage and rest of the site.  I&#x27;m wondering whether it needs a clear &quot;Home&quot; link in its navigation, or if a sufficient percentage of users are likely to understand that clicking on the logo takes you to the homepage.
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lutusp
Because a large, complex site can be intimidating to navigate, it's always
desirable to have an easy way to return to the home page from anywhere within
the site's structure. This avoids the problem of people getting so lost and
frustrated that they bail and go somewhere else.

But you know, you can establish this for yourself by performing an A/B test,
one with, and one without, a home link on each page. See which design holds
onto visitors longer.

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tempestn
I agree that there should be an easy way to get home from each page. That's
why it's become standard to have the logo link to the homepage. The question
is whether enough people are aware of that convention to dispense with the
additional Home link in the navigation.

True that we could test it, and we may well do so, but there are a lot of
things we'll want to test about the new design, so we want to aim as close to
optimal as we can to start with.

~~~
lutusp
> I agree that there should be an easy way to get home from each page. That's
> why it's become standard to have the logo link to the homepage. The question
> is whether enough people are aware of that convention to dispense with the
> additional Home link in the navigation.

How about having the logo tag have a title field that says "Go to home page"
as well as changing the cursor to a hand? This will prompt users who hover
over the icon without taking up room in the layout.

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tempestn
Both good things to do, but they don't really solve the problem IMO. In order
for any kind of mouse-over effect to work, the user has to move the mouse up
into the corner and mouse over the logo. If they're doing that, they probably
already have a good idea that the logo goes somewhere - likely the homepage.
I'm wondering what percentage of people have no clue about that and would be
likely to just get to your homepage however they got there in the first place
(probably Google) if they can't see an explicit "Home" link. I expect this
depends a lot on the audience though.

