Here's a code snippet that uses the approach Steve mentions above. Basically you use the navigation class to zoom in when a user clicks the zoom button. Once the zoom in is complete you deactivate the navigation.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=7,IE=9" />
<!--The viewport meta tag is used to improve the presentation and behavior of the samples
on iOS devices-->
<meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1,user-scalable=no"/>
<title>Navigation toolbar</title>
<style type="text/css">
@import "http://serverapi.arcgisonline.com/jsapi/arcgis/2.6/js/dojo/dijit/themes/claro/claro.css";
.zoominIcon { background-image:url(images/nav_zoomin.png); width:16px; height:16px; }
</style>
<script type="text/javascript">dojoConfig = { parseOnLoad:true }</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://serverapi.arcgisonline.com/jsapi/arcgis/?v=2.6"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
dojo.require("esri.map");
dojo.require("esri.toolbars.navigation");
dojo.require("dijit.form.Button");
var map, navToolbar;
function init() {
esri.config.defaults.map.sliderLabel = null;
var startExtent = new esri.geometry.Extent({"xmin":-16358747,"ymin":2847778,"xmax":3678761,"ymax":12866532,"spatialReference":{"wkid":102100}});
map = new esri.Map("map",{extent:startExtent});
map.addLayer(new esri.layers.ArcGISTiledMapServiceLayer("http://server.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Imagery/MapServer"));
navToolbar = new esri.toolbars.Navigation(map);
dojo.connect(navToolbar, "onExtentHistoryChange", function(){
navToolbar.deactivate();
});
}
dojo.addOnLoad(init);
</script>
</head>
<body class="claro">
<div data-dojo-type="dijit.form.Button" id="zoomin" data-dojo-props="iconClass:'zoominIcon', onClick:function(){navToolbar.activate(esri.toolbars.Navigation.ZOOM_IN);}">Zoom In</div>
<div id="map" style="width:1024px; height:512px; border:1px solid #000;"></div>
</body>
</html>