Good Information Architecture Increases Online Sales:
Imagine you’re downtown and you want to buy a Kraftwerk CD.

You visit Tower Records, go to the Electronic section, find category K, locate Kraftwerk, and select their Tour De France CD. Great! You’re off to the checkout and…

Hang on. Where’s the checkout?

They’ve moved it to the second floor. When you get there, you hand over you credit card. Big mistake. You should have registered downstairs first.

You head back down to the basement. Do you have two copies of your ID? No. “But it’s only a $9.99 CD!” you argue. The store stands firm. Wonderful music though it is, you’re soon off to a store that’s more conducive to purchasing.

This scenario may be a little far-flung, but if you’ve ever shopped online, you’ve probably had a similar experience at some point. You wanted to buy something, were ready to use your credit card… but the process was so excruciating that you gave up.…

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