It is my experience that having an explicit link for home was easier for users
to understand, then just having a company/site logo.  During usability studies
and reviews for web sites at two communcations companies users were more
likely to navigate back to the home page (of the site or sub-site), when there
was a graphic link or hyperlink with the words "home" included.   Furthermore
when some users saw just the logo, they would ignore and use the back button
or text based naviagtion at the bottom of the page.  These words were
sometimes places under the primary logo that was originally used to access the
home page.

Also the layout and design of the logo and the structure of the page could
have an effect how users think about accessing a home page by clicking on a
logo.
---------------------------------
dave kamholz - internet architect
u s west advanced technologies
[log in to unmask] | 303-541-6188

coneti girimohan wrote:

> Making the logo hot and directing it towards Home is a good idea only if u
> have a animated logo. Users tend to hit an animated logo coz they are used
> to this mental model that has been forced by several other sites. However
> if  are considering using just Home on ur button, then u might consider
> having a roll over effect where the button would change to the logo with
> wind effect. This could be placed in the pointof lowest visibility
> especially if u want it give the Home link more as an affordance than as a
> neccesary link!!
> Hope this answers ur question
>
> Coneti
> HCI specialist
> CitiGroup
>
> Louise Penberthy wrote:
>
> > Does anyone know of any investigation into the desirability of having a
> > link with the text "Home" on a Web site?  As opposed to making the
> > company's logo be the link to the home page or something else like
> > that.
> >
> > I assume that having a link labeled "Home" would make it easier for
> > people to find the link and thereby get to the home page.  (Seems like a
> > reasonable assumption.)
> >
> > But if the primary menu already has a lot of options on it, is there a
> > good alternative to adding yet another one that says "home"?  Such as
> > the logo alternative I described above?
> >
> > -- Louise
> >
> > --
> > Louise Penberthy
> > Baltimore, MD  U.S.A.
> > [log in to unmask]
> > http://www.mindspring.com/~louisep/