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To an extent that makes sense, but I think Amazon is just generally bad at web design for reasons unknown to me. Their plain old shopping site has been horrible

To an extent that makes sense, but I think Amazon is just generally bad at web design for reasons unknown to me. Their plain old shopping site has been horrible ever since, inconsistent and confusing, and here you can't even excuse this with diving people to an API. Maybe it's to keep people browsing for longer and get them to buy more but that's assuming it outweighs the frustration induced by it.

RonaldSchleifer 7y ago
It’s interesting you mention the shopping site. I have found their site horrible ever since the beginning and only marginally better since done of their belabored efforts to polish some things. I feel like both WAS and the shopping UI/UX are dependent on an overarching common effect; your willingness to suffer in order to get the hit of addiction. On the shopping site it’s the relative speed and gratification of the purchase in addition to the Christmas like anticipation of package delivery, in AWS it’s the general, relatively best (note the intentional avoidance of “good”) in class overall outcome (a function that includes the universality of AWS in the industry); which both matter way more than everything else, even combined. Think of an Amazon shopping competitor that has a great site UX and actually makes good recommendations (no, Amazon, I do not need 20 more variations on lightbulbs I just bought), the site UX and recommendations, among other things; would surely have to cumulatively far exceed the perceive value placed on the immediacy of AMZ logistics operation that can have you the thing you lust after on the same day sometimes. I’m certain AMZ knows quite well, just as Google, FB, etc., they have a monopoly of Good Enough in core competencies to both maintain their monopoly and stave off or at least frustrate competitors through their monopolization of our minds. It’s a new type of monopoly, Mental Monopoly, suited for the Information Age abstracted from the physical world of goods. It’s why we suffer through Amz, Aws, as well as put up with google and YouTube and fb and endless scrolling through rubbish on Netflix … they have a grip on our lazy mind because they’re all Good Enough and there is no one that is enforcing comptmltition in a manner that is appropriate for thevtech industry.
- AnonymousPlanet 7y ago
  I'm curious, could you point me at a shop that has a better UI? So far, all the other online shops I used so far (and that have a varied set of items) were either on par or much worse. Most of them were bog slow, search didn't work as expected, or some other aspect failed to work properly. Those that were on par were for specialised products.
  - zabhi 7y ago
    You can check https://www.flipkart.com/ https://www.flipkart.com/ or https://www.myntra.com/ https://www.myntra.com/. Both belong the the same group. They are fast to load and feel very lite, in spite of being very client heavy.
    - AnonymousPlanet 7y ago
      Thank you! The first has sluggish loading pictures. But that's maybe because I'm not geographically within the target area. Both feel more modern than Amazon, yes. I didn't test the checkout page and billing/shipping mechanics.
  - jjeaff 7y ago
    Https://Walmart.com
    - AnonymousPlanet 7y ago
      Thank you! This seems like it wants to show me too much at the same time. That makes loading assets slow. But it's more modern than Amazon's shop. Though I'm not sure if that is a good thing after comparing this and the examples in the sibling comment with Amazon's more pedestrian take.
- abledon 7y ago
  Amazon aggressively A/B tests their shopping site -- if the UI was suboptimal, they wouldnt be showing it that way. so much information is crammed into one page. look at most sites in asia and it will be similar. It seems to me that your complaints _are_ what lots of other people actually want to see, (someone saying: yes amazon, please DO show me 20 variations on lightbulbs after i just bought some because Im a shopaholic, i dont do much research and I'm one of the millions of people who click on google ads _all the time_ because i dont know how to go find what i need, the site has to SHOW me what i need)

RonaldSchleifer 7y ago

It’s interesting you mention the shopping site. I have found their site horrible ever since the beginning and only marginally better since done of their belabored efforts to polish some things. I feel like both WAS and the shopping UI/UX are dependent on an overarching common effect; your willingness to suffer in order to get the hit of addiction. On the shopping site it’s the relative speed and gratification of the purchase in addition to the Christmas like anticipation of package delivery, in AWS it’s the general, relatively best (note the intentional avoidance of “good”) in class overall outcome (a function that includes the universality of AWS in the industry); which both matter way more than everything else, even combined. Think of an Amazon shopping competitor that has a great site UX and actually makes good recommendations (no, Amazon, I do not need 20 more variations on lightbulbs I just bought), the site UX and recommendations, among other things; would surely have to cumulatively far exceed the perceive value placed on the immediacy of AMZ logistics operation that can have you the thing you lust after on the same day sometimes. I’m certain AMZ knows quite well, just as Google, FB, etc., they have a monopoly of Good Enough in core competencies to both maintain their monopoly and stave off or at least frustrate competitors through their monopolization of our minds. It’s a new type of monopoly, Mental Monopoly, suited for the Information Age abstracted from the physical world of goods. It’s why we suffer through Amz, Aws, as well as put up with google and YouTube and fb and endless scrolling through rubbish on Netflix … they have a grip on our lazy mind because they’re all Good Enough and there is no one that is enforcing comptmltition in a manner that is appropriate for thevtech industry.

AnonymousPlanet 7y ago
I'm curious, could you point me at a shop that has a better UI? So far, all the other online shops I used so far (and that have a varied set of items) were either on par or much worse. Most of them were bog slow, search didn't work as expected, or some other aspect failed to work properly. Those that were on par were for specialised products.
- zabhi 7y ago
  You can check https://www.flipkart.com/ https://www.flipkart.com/ or https://www.myntra.com/ https://www.myntra.com/. Both belong the the same group. They are fast to load and feel very lite, in spite of being very client heavy.
  - AnonymousPlanet 7y ago
    Thank you! The first has sluggish loading pictures. But that's maybe because I'm not geographically within the target area. Both feel more modern than Amazon, yes. I didn't test the checkout page and billing/shipping mechanics.
- jjeaff 7y ago
  Https://Walmart.com
  - AnonymousPlanet 7y ago
    Thank you! This seems like it wants to show me too much at the same time. That makes loading assets slow. But it's more modern than Amazon's shop. Though I'm not sure if that is a good thing after comparing this and the examples in the sibling comment with Amazon's more pedestrian take.
abledon 7y ago
Amazon aggressively A/B tests their shopping site -- if the UI was suboptimal, they wouldnt be showing it that way. so much information is crammed into one page. look at most sites in asia and it will be similar. It seems to me that your complaints _are_ what lots of other people actually want to see, (someone saying: yes amazon, please DO show me 20 variations on lightbulbs after i just bought some because Im a shopaholic, i dont do much research and I'm one of the millions of people who click on google ads _all the time_ because i dont know how to go find what i need, the site has to SHOW me what i need)