29 Apr 2004 | Brad Hurley said...

I've had several users of my site write to me to specifically request "Back to Top" links on some of my longer pages, so I added them.

I used to click on such links a lot more before I got a mouse with a scroll wheel.

29 Apr 2004 | Allan W. said...

I use the "Back to Top" links frequently, and I generally design my sites with a small link. What annoys me about them: short pages don't need them. What strategies exist to 'detect' page length (or word counts, I suppose) and make that [link] conditional?

29 Apr 2004 | Allan W. said...

I find myself hitting the "home" key on my keyboard a lot. But, I'll click on one if it's right there.

29 Apr 2004 | Bart N. said...

I use them quite a lot and I have them on my site. Not everybody might use them but those want, can.

29 Apr 2004 | Michel Christensen said...

I use them on sites where menus are in top, when I've read something through, I need to scroll my way back to the top, in order to click my way, to the next page.

29 Apr 2004 | Gordon said...

I use them sometimes, other times I bash that 'Home' key. My general feel is that the more navigation options you can give people the better, even if it's not one that's widely used or accepted (how many newbies are aware that 'most' site banner/logos will take you to the home page?).

29 Apr 2004 | Thomas Baekdal said...

Basically it depends on the page (I think - I do not know of any study). The reason you need this link is often to get back to the top navigation. So if you have a page where the breadcrumb and top links, related links etc. is repeated in a footer - then I would imagine that there would no reason to need "back to top".

I have very quickly put together a text page:
http://baekdalp4/x/backtotop.asp

The thing notice is that the top and footer is the same (although flipped vertically). I know this looks strange, but it might improve usability of the site and remove the need to click a separate link to get back

Just a suggestion of course :)

29 Apr 2004 | Thomas Baekdal said...

Wow, maybe I should read what I write before posting... sorry for the bad English - I am from Denmark and English is not my primary language (bad excuse though)

29 Apr 2004 | MrAnonymous said...

I never use them, even on my own page. Pages usually aren't long enough for me to, so I either scroll or hit HOME. I use the PAGE keys a fair amount too. If a page is long enough and the Back to Top link is evident, I'll use it.

29 Apr 2004 | MrAnonymous said...

I should add, that I will also frequently *gasp* click and drag the scroll bar to the top. Old habit, I guess.

29 Apr 2004 | David Ely said...

Usually the only reason I want to go "Back to top" is to use the navigation up there to find more content. What would be more useful would be a quick set of links pointing to the most likely place you expect your user to want to go.

Maybe:
* Home
* Next entry
* Previous entry
* Recenty entries

29 Apr 2004 | Nathan Spindel said...

Personally, I never use them; I always use the Home key.

29 Apr 2004 | Jeremy Flint said...

We use back to top links when the content is long enough to warrant their use.

If someone is on an 800x600 resolution, and the page is about 4 "pages" tall, whether they have a scroll mouse or not, they can use it.

Most normal users, i would think, wouldn't know to hit the "Home" key.

29 Apr 2004 | kev said...

An addendum to this question (but kind of similar):

What about anchor links that simply jump to a different spot on the page? We were discussing this today.... What if the anchor in question is too close to the bottom of the page and clicking the link that takes you there includes multiple other possible anchors in the same visible space? Does the page changing to (sometimes, in our case) not include the navigation, headers, etc confuse the user, or drive them simply to the content for which they were looking?

Any thoughts?

29 Apr 2004 | Thomas Baekdal said...

Maybe I should just go to bed (it is 0:32 AM in this part of the world). Not only did I manage to write badly in my comment above - I also posted a link to my internal test server *sigh*.

Let's try that again...

---

Basically it depends on the page (although, I do not know of any study). The reason you need this is often to get back to the top navigational elements. If you have a page where the breadcrumb, top links, and related links is also displayed in the footer - then, I would imagine, there would be no need for a "Back to Top" link.

I have very quickly put together a test page:
http://www.baekdal.com/x/backtotop.asp

Notice that the top and footer is the same (although flipped vertically). I know this looks strange, but it might improve usability of the site and remove the need to click a separate link to get back

29 Apr 2004 | hey said...

Do you really want to be advertising a another web design and consulting company on your blog? Your Google ads are doing just that.

29 Apr 2004 | Chris from Scottsdale said...

I never use them.

29 Apr 2004 | Jason said...

I HATE 'back to top' links. They are a waste of space and interrupt the page. And there's always an alternative that makes more sense. If you scrolled down to that bit, you would scroll back up. If you followed a link to an anchor, you would hit the back button.

The more we replicate browser functions in the page, the more we encourage helplessness and the inability to use the actual browser controls. What's next, 'next page' links?

30 Apr 2004 | pixelkitty said...

I never use Back to Top myself, but I do include the in commercial sites I develop.

My scroll wheel gets me to the top of the page by simply double clicking it.

That said, I do know of some users who rely on them quite heavily to get to navigation quickly.

It's one of those things that could be better thought out - if your user has to click something to get to your navigation, does that make it a usability issue?

30 Apr 2004 | jacob said...

For some completely inane reason, I avoid them because I don't like seeing URL cruft in the location bar of the web browser. Having said that, I find "Back to top" links incredibly useful whenever I have to use a text browser like Lynx.

30 Apr 2004 | stp said...

I hardly ever poke the 'back to top' button.

30 Apr 2004 | Garrett Dimon said...

I would suggest putting related links at the bottom of the page. The purpose of the back to top link is so that users can get to the global nav and go somewhere else. Why not save them the effort and just include related links, most popular, etc. at the bottom of the page?

30 Apr 2004 | Joseph Lindsay said...

If the main text of the page is more than 500 words, long lists or more than 2-3 screen heights then I try to use them. On most sites I work on I also use an accesskey that links to the start of the text.

30 Apr 2004 | Dan August said...

I hardly ever use Back to Top. I use the browser's Back quite a lot and in combination they become confusing or a waste of time.

I use scroll wheel, Home, End, Page Up, Page Down and space bar quite often.

30 Apr 2004 | Richard Rutter said...

I rarely click back to top links when using a conventional browser, however do click them a lot on my aging Palm Vx when browsing offline with AvantGo (which I do a lot on my rail commute). Scrolling any great distance on a Palm is awkward so a link to take me back to the navigation is a boon.

So back to top links are more of an accessibility addition than everyday utility for the average browser. Perhaps they should say 'back to nav' instead as that's what they are most likely used for?

30 Apr 2004 | Jake Ham said...

The only reason why I don't want to use them is that when I hit the back button, it will go to the bottom of the page, treating it as a page itself. It really makes me mad when I have to click the back button 4 times just to get back 1 page because the designer used names to assign links!

30 Apr 2004 | Sim said...

I dislike "back to top" links because they waste space, break continuity, and mess up the history in my browser's back button. I never use them, I click and drag the vert scrollbar instead.

I am, however, required to put "back to top" links after every 600px of page height on my govt. websites. That is our mandate. The belief is that, after reading an extended passage of content, users will be so confused and disoriented that they will suddenly forget where they are and how to work the interweb.

30 Apr 2004 | Darrel said...

Back to top, if anything, indicates that you are still on the same page. Often people get confused with anchor links not realizing they are on the same page.

One ingenious use of javascript (IMHO) to remedy this is this:

http://www.kryogenix.org/code/browser/smoothscroll/#top

and Thomas...I always like your thinking.

30 Apr 2004 | Derek said...

Looks like no one has an aswer to the original question, which is, is there any research on this topic?

I've moved away from including (especially multiple) Back to Top links, but there is one situation in which I find them useful: when I've come to an in-page anchor (example.com/page.html#link) from another page (i.e. not higher up that same page). Then I might like to know that I can go to the top (not "back" to the top, since I've never been there) to see what else is on it.

Still, my feelings aren't strong about the issue, and it would be nice to see if the links have more benefit than disadvantage for real users on the modern Web.

30 Apr 2004 | Adrian Howard said...

I personally don't click on them since I know how to do it with the keyboard.

However I've done a fair number of user tests where people either complained about having to scroll back to the top / table of contents, or explicitly said that they wanted such links. So I'd vote for including them myself.

30 Apr 2004 | Jerry said...

I never use them, and don't like them. They mess up the page stack, IMHO.

30 Apr 2004 | Sean King said...

I'm with Brad and Adrian. Every time I create pages with lengthy content and don't put a "Back to Top" link in, I get a mails from users requesting it.

30 Apr 2004 | Justin said...

I don't think I've ever clickd a 'Back to Top' button. Maybe once.

30 Apr 2004 | philsci said...

hello from japan, and i have suggested that 'back to top' link is not necessary on anywhere, from my boss. his reason is just 'it is unnecessary dust and few people use it' and 'almost all people now use a wheel mouse and they jump to the top of any page with wheel-and-drag (fast scroll)'...
yea i do it so...

02 May 2004 | Allan W. said...

What I'm hearing: It seems clear from the comments that those of us who use a full keyboard (with Page/Home/End buttons) and are power users tend to use those keys. A few who mentioned surfing on other user-agents (Lynx, Palm, other?) note the utility of a back-to-top link.

So, part of the equation then becomes, what priority is assigned to [fuller support of] "other" user-agents, or non-power-users?

Sounds like we should be collecting clickthrough stats on our "back to top" links... although I don't know how to track scroll-wheel mice stats. =)

02 May 2004 | Allan W. said...

Well, that does it - I just read my last post and, on instinct, click the "back to top ^" right here on this very page. I guess it's ingrained in some of us.

PS - my experiences mirror those who stated that clients ask for it if I don't put one in. I try to keep them minimal - "Top" is usually enough ( c.f. Derek).

03 May 2004 | Sam Walker said...

I suppose those using some PC Laptop with inconveniently-positioned home keys would like them, but my Apple Pro Keyboard has easy-access Home and End keys, so I don't use them.

If you were to decide that Back To Top links are useful for you, it would make more sense to just have one, positioned with CSS so it is always in the viewport (somewhere out of the way, of course), rather than cluttering your page with several of them.

03 May 2004 | Silus Grok said...

I've not seen any research on the topic myself.

Must admit, though, that Thomas' solution is very elegant... it won't, however, address the BACK TO TOP issue from on- or off-page anchor links.

Hm....

05 May 2004 | Charles Chapman said...

Personally I never find these useful. If a page is really so long that one would be useful I'd argue that perhaps the information could be better organized by breaking up onto several pages.

I always try to advise people not to use them since they are a waste of space and don't seem to get used very often in the focus groups I've asked before.

05 May 2004 | Scott said...

My main observation is that many of the responses here are "I don't use them". I am constantly reminded in dealing with my clients that almost none of them share the same knowledge of using the computer, web, etc that I do, so I have learned not to go by what "I" do.

On a side note, I only recently started using "top" links, and have recently started adding them to some of my sites, usually in the footer, or in some fashion at the bottom of the content that is consistent, instead of throughout a page, unless the page uses anchor links. And the smoothscroll javascript is very handy in those situations.

06 May 2004 | Bhuvnesh Chaudhry said...

The 'Back to Top' is pretty useful when the pages are long (ask your index finger).However, they are a waste on short pages.

06 May 2004 | Garrett Dimon said...

Another observation. It seems that many are saying, "I never use them." This has two-fold problem. 1. Most people on this forum are computer-saavy. 2. It isn't much good to just ask a user, "What do you do?" You have to sit them down and observe their normal use. Everybody has their opinion.

This goes back to the original point, is there any concrete research to this end?

That being said, my instinct would tell me that the benefits for text-only browsers and screen readers would outweight the trouble of inserting a simple anchor tag at the bottom of text. But, alas, instincts are not enough, it would be nice to have actual research about this.

11 May 2004 | dusoft said...

I barely use them, Home key is much more convenient and faster indeed.

30 Jan 2005 | compatelius said...

bocigalingus must be something funny.