Arrows in the top left corner, big banners that say “BACK TO HOME”, x-closes, etc. I feel like I can never make page navigation look good.
On your site, how does the user get back to the previous page? I’m collecting back button inspo.
I might provide a “back to top” link at the end of a page, but if a visitor wants to return to a previous page their browser’s back button works fine unless I use JavaScript to tamper with it—which I never do, even at work.
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What back button? How am I supposed to know where the visitor came from? That’s the browser’s job. An “up” link going to the parent page is another story. That usually goes right above the page title.
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I have a back button in my sticky header and at the bottom of the page, if there is something to go back in my site hierarchy. But I also use the browser back button a lot on websites, if they have a back button or not.
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No need for a back button here. Browsers have a back button.
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back to top is usually all i do. though i’ve used a sticky navbar at the top before that will follow the visitor as they scroll
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This is something I tell bosses and clients at my day job on the regular. You’d think was trying to sell them on Scientology. Actually, persuading them to believe in Xenu and butt thetans might be easier.
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Maybe at the top of the menu, then, if you have one?
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Most of my pages have a HOME button in the top left hand corner which doesn’t take you back one page but brings you to the index page.
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Mine is not really a true back button; it’s just a simple return arrow in the top left corner of every page that takes you to the previous page in the site’s hierarchy. Hovering over the arrow lets the visitor know where they’re going (usually “Home”). See here: https://aetheranne.ca/blog/
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By convention the title of the site or banner or icon serves as a return to home. I overrode the _includes/header.html from my Jekyll theme just to include a link back to both the top of my blog and the top of my domain since I host the blog on a subdomain.
For images a lightbox should ideally close multiple ways with the back button, clicking outside the image, and an “x” button. Or more simply use target="_blank" to open images in a new tab so users don’t lose their place in the document after viewing an image.
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At the bottom of posts near the permalink, if an HTTP referrer was detected. If one was not detected, then it doesn’t show up.
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It depends. A “site header with a homepage link” model is usually what works the best, but, for instance, one of the sites I designed only has the subpage title on the top, so I ended up putting breadcrumb-style links on the footer of each subpage instead.
I was initially satisfied by the “just use the back button” model in more minimalist pages, but I eventually found that to be a problem, since that means someone can link to a subpage without that page providing an easy way to navigate back to other relevant pages.
On Android mobile apps, such as chat apps or RSS readers, pages are often opened in some sort of limited container without access to the address bar unless the person uses the menu to open that page in the browser. So it takes a bunch of extra taps to check the index page that could be avoided if in-page links were provided.
“Back to home”/“back to (general category where the page is)” can also be a reminder that there are more pages to explore!
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