I bought something Sunday at Best Buy and I go to check out, but there are no registers. Ask the guy at the only desk near the entrance (literally in the middle of 4 entrances/exits, with no barriers to prevent exit or spot shoplifters except one guy), he points to a sign off in the distance, that's just an arrow pointing left, easily 200 paces from the doors and about 8 inches square. Go there, follow the direction, 20 paces and 2 turns later it opens out into 3 registers against the wall...invisible from within the store and with no one manning them. Guy at that desk can see me from his desk, notices I'm alone, calls someone to the register.

Interesting layout. Leave the shopper confused and stranded unless they think to follow a really small arrow on a distant sign...reminds me of some websites I've seen, and I think there's a lesson in this. ;)

When designing your website, try to view it as if you'd never been there before and don't know where everything is. Invite a family member or someone who isn't terribly net savvy to view it, and ask them to look around. See if they get stuck anywhere with no obvious way back to where they were. Make sure you can get back to somewhere useful from anywhere within the site, both to the start of your shopping section (if you have one), the section they're currently viewing, or back to the home page to start over. Make it easy to find things like support, checkout, cart viewing and so forth.
The less frustration the visitor experiences, the more likely they will be to follow through, and maybe even return. :agree:

I'd have to agree that making things less frustrating and simple is the way to go. Google is the perfect example of how effective simple web design can be.

Nice analogy, I can see where your coming from but shouldn't you be thinking about something else on a sunday, shopping then webdesign? Perhaps thats why there were no clerks, because it was sunday, perhaps they got drunk on saturday and decided not to go to work. The website for best buy looks fine though...