I am a bit on the fence with this one. At one of my websites the home button on the home page is indeed used, while Jakob Nielsen says his studies showed it only confused people and you shouldn’t do it.
Sigh.
With a site I’m coding I’ll be having at least two places the users can click to get to the home page:
- clicking the site logo
- homepage link in the crumb trail
I’ll probably also add a button somewhere else (possibly the main navigation menu).
…while Jakob Nielsen says his studies showed it only confused people and you shouldn’t do it.
Well, he worries about buttons that won’t take people anywhere. But if you highlight it, or otherwise make it obvious that you are on the home page, (and/or make the home button not a button anymore), it should be fine.
Also some of his Alerts are from like 2004 and older. While basic human usability doesn’t necessarily change much, people’s expectations of web sites do change over time.
I don’t think you’ll throw your users into a spiral of confusion with a normal home button : )