3 ms·

Amazon really blows me away with their end-to-end experience. The funny thing is that their site's UX leaves much to be desired, but it's highly functional and

Amazon really blows me away with their end-to-end experience. The funny thing is that their site's UX leaves much to be desired, but it's highly functional and they still have a world-class brand even without a world-class frontend for Amazon.com. We obsess over our web app's front-end design, but often neglect the end-to-end experience.

notatoad 14y ago
Their site's UX is amazing. The aesthetic design could use some work, but the actual interaction and interface design on amazon is pretty great. Their goal isn't to look pretty, it's to sell stuff. There have been many times when i've been looking at something on amazon, clicked the one-click purchase button, and then hours later realized i wasn't really sure i wanted to buy it, Amazon just makes it far too easy to give them my money.
- chaud 14y ago
  Compare their site to Newegg for purchasing computer hardware. Newegg's filtering system blows Amazon's away, making it possible to easily find what you are looking for. Amazon likes to give me similar hardware when I search for a part, cluttering up the results with things I don't want. If I search for a 7850 GPU, I don't want results for a 6950, 7950, 6870, 7770, 7870, Intel 3570K CPU, GTX 670, Intel 2500K CPU, GTX 480, 6850, GTX 560 Ti, and GTX 560. That was all just on the first page of search results. Granted, you do want similar products in other cases, but the same kind of failure applies elsewhere. Another annoying thing is the duplicate items as separate listings. Sometimes I will go and look for something like a Water Filter replacement and find 3 or 4 different listings for the product with multiple sellers under each. Using Amazon to find a specific product is an unpleasant experience. Thankfully once you find the product you are looking for everything else is great.
majormajor 14y ago
Could you elaborate on how you think their site's experience leaves much to be desired despite being highly functional? I'm having trouble thinking of any time when I thought to myself "boy, I hate the process Amazon makes me take to do this task" and isn't that really what it's all about?
- jason_shah 14y ago
  That's true in many ways. The actual site's UX isn't bad per se because it's pretty easy to find what you want, buy it, manage the order, etc. And yes, that's what "it's all about" at the end of the day. I think I was caught in a little bit of Silicon Valley myopic thinking since their site isn't shiny and that's what is mistakenly considered as interchangeable with good UI design these days. That being said, Amazon.com the site does still need to improve UX in a couple key areas. Compared to more contemporary e-commerce sites, the ability to compare items and make sense of ratings (i.e. the flaws of the 5 star rating system) is where they need to make the most improvement IMHO. It may have been an overstatement to say "their site leaves much to be desired" in all fairness.
  - caffeine5150 14y ago
    It seems like there are easy improvements to search by ratings they could make. If I am browsing for a new book, I'd like to be able to search by number of reviews alone. Anything with more than 500 or so reviews is probably worth taking a look at. I also would like to filter out items with less than 'x' reviews or search by a ratio of number of reviews to the number of stars. This might hurt products trying to get off the ground, but I'd really like it as a user.
- waterlesscloud 14y ago
  The main area I have complaint with is the discovery process for finding digital videos to watch. Once you've used something like Netflix, the Amazon process is awful.
  - majormajor 14y ago
    Oh, good point, this is definitely true. I have Prime, but Netflix is so much easier to find stuff on (or even remember that there's stuff there to find) that I've never used any of the included free Amazon video stuff.
- jaylevitt 14y ago
  It's difficult to comparison-shop for features; Amazon reviews are now the definitive source of consumer opinion, but you have to sort of agglomerate your own set of W-X, X-Y, Y-Z and X-Z comparisons to see why people chose one over the other (and account for the fact that all four of those reviews were on models that have since been replaced).

notatoad 14y ago

Their site's UX is amazing. The aesthetic design could use some work, but the actual interaction and interface design on amazon is pretty great. Their goal isn't to look pretty, it's to sell stuff. There have been many times when i've been looking at something on amazon, clicked the one-click purchase button, and then hours later realized i wasn't really sure i wanted to buy it, Amazon just makes it far too easy to give them my money.

chaud 14y ago
Compare their site to Newegg for purchasing computer hardware. Newegg's filtering system blows Amazon's away, making it possible to easily find what you are looking for. Amazon likes to give me similar hardware when I search for a part, cluttering up the results with things I don't want. If I search for a 7850 GPU, I don't want results for a 6950, 7950, 6870, 7770, 7870, Intel 3570K CPU, GTX 670, Intel 2500K CPU, GTX 480, 6850, GTX 560 Ti, and GTX 560. That was all just on the first page of search results. Granted, you do want similar products in other cases, but the same kind of failure applies elsewhere. Another annoying thing is the duplicate items as separate listings. Sometimes I will go and look for something like a Water Filter replacement and find 3 or 4 different listings for the product with multiple sellers under each. Using Amazon to find a specific product is an unpleasant experience. Thankfully once you find the product you are looking for everything else is great.

majormajor 14y ago

Could you elaborate on how you think their site's experience leaves much to be desired despite being highly functional? I'm having trouble thinking of any time when I thought to myself "boy, I hate the process Amazon makes me take to do this task" and isn't that really what it's all about?

jason_shah 14y ago
That's true in many ways. The actual site's UX isn't bad per se because it's pretty easy to find what you want, buy it, manage the order, etc. And yes, that's what "it's all about" at the end of the day. I think I was caught in a little bit of Silicon Valley myopic thinking since their site isn't shiny and that's what is mistakenly considered as interchangeable with good UI design these days. That being said, Amazon.com the site does still need to improve UX in a couple key areas. Compared to more contemporary e-commerce sites, the ability to compare items and make sense of ratings (i.e. the flaws of the 5 star rating system) is where they need to make the most improvement IMHO. It may have been an overstatement to say "their site leaves much to be desired" in all fairness.
- caffeine5150 14y ago
  It seems like there are easy improvements to search by ratings they could make. If I am browsing for a new book, I'd like to be able to search by number of reviews alone. Anything with more than 500 or so reviews is probably worth taking a look at. I also would like to filter out items with less than 'x' reviews or search by a ratio of number of reviews to the number of stars. This might hurt products trying to get off the ground, but I'd really like it as a user.
waterlesscloud 14y ago
The main area I have complaint with is the discovery process for finding digital videos to watch. Once you've used something like Netflix, the Amazon process is awful.
- majormajor 14y ago
  Oh, good point, this is definitely true. I have Prime, but Netflix is so much easier to find stuff on (or even remember that there's stuff there to find) that I've never used any of the included free Amazon video stuff.
jaylevitt 14y ago
It's difficult to comparison-shop for features; Amazon reviews are now the definitive source of consumer opinion, but you have to sort of agglomerate your own set of W-X, X-Y, Y-Z and X-Z comparisons to see why people chose one over the other (and account for the fact that all four of those reviews were on models that have since been replaced).