Logos and function and delight

Yesterday I read these two opinions on placing a logo in the top left hand corner of your web page:

Keep it simple. A principle as true in typography as anything else. If you think you need three colors and five fonts, think again. If you think you need a logo in the upper left corner of every page, think again. Maxims of page layout, Matthew Butterick

Where things will be located on a page. For example, users expect the logo identifying the site to be in the top left corner (at least in countries where reading is left to right)… Don’t Make Me Think Revisited p.30, 3rd ed. 2013, Steve Krug

They aren’t mutually exclusive – Krug is discussing how to make corporate sites usable, Butterick on writing long form, more personal texts, such as a blog. Where the two approaches to design – namely function and delight – meet and relate is an interesting area. (The apparent dichotomy is as old as the hills.)

Note: Butterick is preaching simplicity, which aids usability, and Krug has added “delightful” as a possible attribute of usability passim, p.9.