SV: [Sigia-l] logo as link to home

[Thomas Vander Wal]

I agree with needing more research, as when I found users in testing
situations trying to click the logo for the brand/organization/site that
sits in the upper left-hand corner I went digging for research.  This began
about 2 years ago that this pattern began  popping up consistently.  Jakob
often states that the site should follow this convention, but I have found
one must test everything with the sites users as Jakob's mandates don't
always travel to far into a site's actual user community.

I also strongly  agree with Christina that the site should also have a
"Home" link that will help those users not familiar with the logo link home
convention.  This can be done in a navigation bar context or in breadcrumbs.
Site owners and developers often forget that single pages in the site can be
linked to from elsewhere on the Internet and giving the user a way up to the
top of the site is very helpful, that is if the owners and developers of the
site believe the site has something else to offer besides the one page
linked to externally.

All the best,
Thomas

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Wiggins" <rich at richardwiggins.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 7:10 AM

> Has anyone done any testing to verify the proposition that most users
> understand that the corporate logo is a link back to the home page?  Any
> citations to articles on this topic?
>
> I'm part of a committee that's looking at best practices in university Web
> design.  We sit in a room together and do group surfing.  Different folks
> "drive" at different times.  You'd be amazed how often one of the drivers
> has to be coached on a navigational aid that was assumed to be "obvious"
by
> the designer.  I know I've told many people that the logo is a link home
> many times.
>
> Think back to 1993 when inline images that were hyperlinks were obvious
> because they all had borders around them.  Then the design community took
> over and removed hyperlink borders and underscores.  Today when I'm at,
say,
> a newspaper site, I find myself rolling over each element (section name,
> headline, photos, callout heads, etc.) to find out if it's a hyperlink or
> not.  And that doesn't always work (e.g. some links implemented in
> JavaScript).
>
> I'd want to see a usability study (real user observation, not just
analysis)
> before concluding that most users now instinctively click on the logo to
go
> home.
>
> /rich