I am not talking about the top navigation bar or side menus.
I am talking about the topics you can list in the content.
I tested both - here is what I did:
- TEST 1 - around 50 program icons listed on the home page
- TEST 2 - the totality of the topics ordered and listed on the home page as links
- TEST 3 - only a fraction of topics are listed - icons to product types like ebooks, videos, etc
With TEST 2, which is the text links, traffic increased by roughly 5-10%
With TEST 3, traffic decreased by 30%
---------------------
So, here is the conclusion:
Even though, listing ALL topics on the home page does not make sense from a design perspective (it doesn't look as pretty as icons, videos, etc) that's what makes visitor's life the easiest.
It is way more challenging to navigate a see of icons than a see of text links where ONLY the info needed is there.
--------------------
Actually quite a few big sites use this full set of text links in their home page.
Craigslist, and many other sites.
I am sure that designers don't like it at all because it gives them nor room for creativity.
However, I am sure that users love it because they can find exactly what they look for straight away!
--------------------