The title really says it all. I mean, is there a particular reasons for which logos have to appear at the upper-left corner and not, say, in the upper-centre?
Example: all Stack Exchange sites, Google, Yahoo...
asked Dec 4, 2011 at 20:45
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1Seeing that the logo is almost always a link back to the homepage, this could also be considered a user experience decision to put it there. If the only reason for doing something is "That's what people expect on every other site, and I don't want to confuse them" it's worth it.– corsiKaCommented Dec 5, 2011 at 19:01
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On a side note, useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html has a few examples of where most people look on certain web pages. Kind of nice to visualize at least roughly what areas most people tend to look at. According to the F pattern idea, putting your logo on the top-left will make it the most likely to be seen.– ToddBFisherCommented Dec 15, 2011 at 20:22
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2 Answers
Western language visitors read left-right, top down. Go to any Hebrew or Arabic website and where's the logo? Top right. The convention originates, I suspect, from letterhead design. Early websites were analogs of paper, and that analogy still dominates web design, although we're gradually weaning off it. The other common analogy, a store front, still has the logo at the top (only a few, usually very high end stores eschew a sign over the window).
The other reason we put logos top left is that we want people surfing the web to know where they are, and they rather expect to find that information in that spot. When you land on a page, the first place you will look is that top left corner unless there is something else that dominates the page.
There are many fantastic designs that don't put the logo there, but they are still in the minority for now. I expect that to change over then next decade or so, as web sites are gradually (or rapidly, who knows?) superseded by apps.
answered Dec 4, 2011 at 22:14
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Alan... Can you give us some examples? I would love to see them. Commented Feb 25, 2014 at 16:50
People (in the western world, at least) read from left to right, since a website is literally a page in a browser, wouldn't it be more appropriate to place your logo on the left?
