shelving, not architecture

I have never been taken by the metaphor of information architecture (as evangelized by Morville and Rosenfeld).To me, organizing a Web site is more like organizing a grocery store.

Where should the shelves be, what direction should the aisles go so it is easy to find a good route through?

How can we decorate the store to give the customers the right feeling? Should it look expensive, reasonable, clean, ethnic, luxurious?

How do you group the foods? Do dark chocolate belong in Baking goods or Sweets? Is an Italian pasta sauce Ethnic Food or Canned goods? Should diapers be next to children's food, toys, or toilet paper? Are hamburger rolls with bread or meat?

Somehow (from experience, perhaps), we never expect a large store to be intuitive. We ask someone.

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