We talked last time about in Usability at the Checkout - Funnel to get Sales about creating a process with no distractions and only one way out, so that customers who had decided to purchase could do so without being bombarded with other offers and other navigational opportunities. We said that the checkout process should be the first place to look when trying to make a whole sales process more efficient.

But there are other places where funnels can be useful, and not always to avoid distractions, sometimes to provide them. Again, imagine a retailers response when a designer says 'Hey, why don't we force everyone who enters our store to walk past all our stock!". Usual sharp intakes of breath, I suppose, but in one case it has been extraordinarily successful. Ikea.

Hey, why don't we force everyone who enters our store to walk past all our stock!

A regular real world store is just like the internet. You can wander round it as you please, look at what you want to look at, buy what you want and go home. Ikea is different. You have to go through a sequence of rooms stocked out elegantly with some beautiful and functional designs. The is even a road map that shows you what you will pass next. You can sneak off through a short-cuts and you can fight your way upstream, against the flow. But it i really a one-way street experience.

This has some massive benefits for the retailer. Need is frequently established where it previously did not exist. "Hey, y'know we really do need a cupboard/bed/blue and pink candle". That kind of thing. And, because of the mindset of the Ikea visitor - home improvement - they don't resent it. In fact, this is a truly designed experience.not just a sales process. The funnel forms a narrative, a story line, with a set and lighting (and extras) to suit. It is staged, like a show, and all the customers - the audience - want to be there to experience the beginning, middle and the end.

Phew, exciting stuff. But when will we see the first website like this? When websites get directed, like films or shows, and not laid out like print. When the obsession with the single page subsides. When experiences get designed instead of store fronts. So, not for some while yet. But we can look forward to it, the time will come...