There’s a great discussion going on over on the LinkedIn User Experience group:

Home button vs Logo link?

The discussion revolves around the use of a site’s logo as a “back to home” link, and whether that means you can omit “home” from the primary navigation.

I tend to err on the site of caution and specify that the main navigation has an explicitly labelled home link in addition to having the logo as a link, although I take on-board the comments about there being times when it could be counter-productive either because a) it further obscures the main navigation or b) the user has very little need to ever return to the home page (although I’d still exercise caution here because many users view the homepage as a starting point for a journey: I’ve seen several instances where a user will go back to Home and start their search/browse session again even though they don’t really need to, as if the Home page represents a psychological anchor for them, a launch pad for their visit to the site).

Nonetheless, the discussion has some valid arguments for and against having both types of Home link and I’m enjoying the insight…

Home button vs Logo link?