Before generating ideas in response to the problem set, Amazon Marketplace & Prime were carefully analysed in terms of accessibility, usability, adoptability, desirability and value. Identifying specific problems allowed the idea generation stage to be much much easier.
Homepage & Responsivity - One aspect that is very surprising about Amazon's platform is that it is not fully responsive. As seen in the comparison below, the content on their site does not adjust after being stretched to a tablet size. This is most likely because they have fixed mobile and tablet layouts. Whilst this means that the site is optimised for different devices, fixed layouts are not fully responsive, as they do not change to specific screen sizes. This is a real problem as content can become too small/large in scale on devices that are slightly different to the designed fixed layout dimensions.
Only studios' website is a very effective example of full responsivity. The type and images resize for all device sizes, which ensures that every user gets the best experience possible. In this sense, the role of responsivity should be considered when producing layout ideas. As the research indicates that the majority of users view Amazon on their mobile phones, it is more appropriate to design for this format before a desktop layout.
Only studios' website is a very effective example of full responsivity. The type and images resize for all device sizes, which ensures that every user gets the best experience possible. In this sense, the role of responsivity should be considered when producing layout ideas. As the research indicates that the majority of users view Amazon on their mobile phones, it is more appropriate to design for this format before a desktop layout.
Upon further inspection, it became clear that Amazon's home page is overly cluttered, with a real focus on advertising as opposed to the user experience. A few colour co-ordinated diagrams, seen below, highlight some of the problems I found when using the home page. The coloured circles represent the following:
Red - Amazon Prime, 'Try Now'
Green - Your Account
Blue - Gift Cards
Yellow - Sell
Yellow - Sell
As evidently seen, there are 6 Amazon Prime buttons on the first section of the home page. Whilst this may be considered as a very visual way of pushing the service, the unstructured, disorganised amount of buttons across the page, for the same feature, make the usability experience quite confusing and complicated. This use of multiple buttons for the same feature can also be seen by the 'Your Account' and 'Gift Cards' buttons. When looking at smaller online retailers, it is obvious that the user experience is much more clear because there is one button for each function, which makes shopping instantly simple and more efficient. This is one reason for why non-Amazoners do not use the platform, because the experience is not as personal or straightforward as those on smaller sites. The website could be simplified a lot in this respect.
As for the yellow ring, this highlights the 'Sell' button. Upon first glance at the home page, I found it very difficult to even find this button, as the type size is very small and merges in with the other menu options below the search bar. Whilst this is consistent with the colour scheme and site typeface, you would think that the 'Sell' button would be emphasised in a much clearer way, as it is one of the 3 most important areas of Amazon - there are now over 2 million sellers worldwide, which account for over 40% of the total units sold on Amazon.
For a comparison the mobile site was analysed in a similar manner. Whilst the overall look of the site was the same as the desktop layout, a lot of the functions were much harder to find. Whilst the 'Your Account' button is still heavily used on the mobile layout, with 3 'Sign In' buttons being easily viewable on the front page, there is nowhere to find Prime whatsoever on the mobile site's home page, which strongly contrasts against the desktop site. This inconsistency between the 2 platforms is very ineffective, as users will have an even more confusing experience on their phone than on a computer. As for the 'Sell' button, you have to scroll to the very bottom of the browser to find it. This once again highlights how the user experience is not as considered as it could be. The only consistency on both platforms is how the search bar is clearly visible at the top of the app, which is crucial as nearly half of web shoppers go directly to Amazon for product searches. It is clear that the entire home page needs a few changes.
Overall, the signup process and selling process appears to be very straightforward. The Amazon Seller Central space is very similar to Ebay's layout, which is very organised and clear to use. One aspect that seems slightly strange is how there are 2 types of seller accounts - one for full-time sellers and one for occasional sellers. To sign up as an occasional seller, you must click the tiny line of text to the bottom right of the banner, which initially is hardly even noticeable. A screenshot of this can be seen below. Amazon appear to be quite sly with their marketing; as later seen with Amazon Prime, the fee after a 2-day trial is almost hidden away. This lack of honesty with the consumer is another reason for why the 15% choose not to use Amazon.
In comparison to the marketplace's layout, Amazon Seller Central is much cleaner and overall more user-friendly, as the menu bar is very stripped down, dividing the platform into various specific areas. The user experience looks much better than the analysed home page - as users and businesses pay monthly to sell items, Amazon has clearly put a much lesser focus on advertising than the user experience. This should be applied across the whole website; not just for premium members, as the user experience should be beneficial for everybody that uses the site.
Customer Support - I have never experienced problems with Amazon before in terms of customer service - tracking items and contacting buyers is very direct and efficient. When I was charged from Prime after the 2-day trial, I received the money back the next day after phoning their customer service line. This also was the case for many other people that have the same problem.
In July 2016, the Institute of Customer Service released an annual list of companies with the best customer service in the UK. At the top of the list is Amazon.co.uk, topping other renown companies such as Waitrose, Premier Inn & AA Insurance. The state of customer satisfaction in the UK is generated by getting 10,000 customers to rate their experiences of dealing with over 200 organisations across 13 sectors. Increases in customer satisfaction were most noticeable for organisations’ speed of response to written (letter or email) communications, for ease of getting through (over the phone), online experiences and the way complaints were handled. This relates back to the Prime experience; whilst many people are put off by the fee after the trial, the customer service that resolved the problem is quick to respond and ultimately focused on helping the customer.
On Amazon's site, there is a section dedicated to customer help. As explained with the 'Sell' section, the 'Help' button could be identified a bit more clearly
The page is separated into various headers to make the process more specific to the user's problem. This simplicity can be seen below. The ad placement for the 'Grand Tour' (with a warning symbol) feels very out of place, as this area of the site should solely focus on the customer experience. There is already a banner at the top of the page advertising the show; therefore, this addition feels unnecessary.
Once a problem has been specified, users can either e-mail, phone or live chat with Amazon support. The process is extremely quick and the customer support team are very helpful. One concern about the customer support process is that it does not clearly explain that the user will end up with the option to talk to an Amazon representative. Other market platforms that I have used before use a similar process; however, after specifying the problem, there is no option to chat to a representative - usually, you are given a few explanatory lines of information that do not help to solve the problem. In this sense, it would be clearer to the user if the e-mail, phone and chat option came before the other questions.
Prime - The 2-day trial aspect to Prime has already been mentioned; however, the functionality and layout needs to be reviewed. After signing up for an Amazon Prime account and logging in it became clear that the user experience could be massively improved. All the features of Prime are in a bullet point list to the right of the page. The images in the centre of the page are highlighting what you can enjoy as a Prime member. This is completely irrelevant as people seeing this page have already signed up for Prime and understand the features. Furthermore, the images are not even clickable - at first I thought they were to take you through to the video/music platforms but they aren't. After showing over 20 people in the class, every person was shocked by the overall appearance. Everyone agreed that there should be a much better welcoming platform, as customers are paying for that experience.
Upon checking out the Amazon Video & Music platforms, the overall layout improved much more. The Music site, in particular, is categorised very well, with various sections and functions being labelled specifically. In terms of Amazon Video, Simon highlighted one negative aspect that he found with using the platform. He said that, unlike Netflix, there is no way of restricting the site for different users. A children's film or TV show could be right next to an adult, gory series, which can be troublesome when allowing children to use the platform. Netflix solves this problem with ease by allowing user to pick who is viewing before exploring the film on show. This aspect should be considered with Amazon Video, and also Amazon Music (explicit songs).
For non-smart TVs, Amazon offers a Fire TV Stick, which essentially allows users to load prime and other streaming services through an app. Yet, for over 400 smart TVs, Amazon Instant Video is available - an app that is built into the TV when bought. This is one strong aspect to Amazon Prime as a product, as it is accessible to most televisions and devices.
As a whole, a few adjustments could be made to the overall layout; however, the functionality is fairly effective. The main problem identified with Prime is how it is marketed - it is not very clear what Prime is and there are too many name variants of it (Amazon Instant Video, Amazon Fire Stick, Amazon Video, Amazon Prime etc).
Selling - As touched upon already, the 'Sell' area of the site is actually quite difficult to find, especially on the mobile site. To find out about what the sign-up process and selling platform is like, a recent video on YouTube was watched. I could not test this area of the site because there is a £25 monthly fee to sell items on Amazon.
Overall, the signup process and selling process appears to be very straightforward. The Amazon Seller Central space is very similar to Ebay's layout, which is very organised and clear to use. One aspect that seems slightly strange is how there are 2 types of seller accounts - one for full-time sellers and one for occasional sellers. To sign up as an occasional seller, you must click the tiny line of text to the bottom right of the banner, which initially is hardly even noticeable. A screenshot of this can be seen below. Amazon appear to be quite sly with their marketing; as later seen with Amazon Prime, the fee after a 2-day trial is almost hidden away. This lack of honesty with the consumer is another reason for why the 15% choose not to use Amazon.
In comparison to the marketplace's layout, Amazon Seller Central is much cleaner and overall more user-friendly, as the menu bar is very stripped down, dividing the platform into various specific areas. The user experience looks much better than the analysed home page - as users and businesses pay monthly to sell items, Amazon has clearly put a much lesser focus on advertising than the user experience. This should be applied across the whole website; not just for premium members, as the user experience should be beneficial for everybody that uses the site.
Buying - In terms of purchasing items, the search bar at the top of the site is the main way to find items on Amazon. 44% of web shoppers go directly to Amazon for product searches, therefore keeping the search bar large and clear is a crucial part to the site. The desktop site has a very basic layout, with items being organised in a grid like fashion. To the left of the page are all the options that you can select to find specific items. This left section is fixed to the page, which means that when scrolling down to look at items, it doesn't move with the user. This is frustrating, as users must scroll all the way back to the top of the page to adjust their search criteria. The search bar is also fixed to the top of the site. This problem also occurs on the mobile site, as the accordian and 'filter' button stays at the top of the page.
When you reach the bottom of the page on the mobile site, there are buttons to either go back to the top of the page or to go to the next page. Annoyingly, when you press these buttons, the page refreshes, which causes your browser to have a long list of history when looking at multiple pages. It would make much more sense, on the desktop site and mobile site, to have an endless vertical grid of items, with no pages. The 'filter' button, side bar, search bar and accordions should move when the user scrolls, so that they constantly have the option to amend their search, without having to tediously reload the page or scroll up.
Other than these mentioned problems, the buying process is very easy to understand and works well.
When you reach the bottom of the page on the mobile site, there are buttons to either go back to the top of the page or to go to the next page. Annoyingly, when you press these buttons, the page refreshes, which causes your browser to have a long list of history when looking at multiple pages. It would make much more sense, on the desktop site and mobile site, to have an endless vertical grid of items, with no pages. The 'filter' button, side bar, search bar and accordions should move when the user scrolls, so that they constantly have the option to amend their search, without having to tediously reload the page or scroll up.
Other than these mentioned problems, the buying process is very easy to understand and works well.
Customer Support - I have never experienced problems with Amazon before in terms of customer service - tracking items and contacting buyers is very direct and efficient. When I was charged from Prime after the 2-day trial, I received the money back the next day after phoning their customer service line. This also was the case for many other people that have the same problem. In July 2016, the Institute of Customer Service released an annual list of companies with the best customer service in the UK. At the top of the list is Amazon.co.uk, topping other renown companies such as Waitrose, Premier Inn & AA Insurance. The state of customer satisfaction in the UK is generated by getting 10,000 customers to rate their experiences of dealing with over 200 organisations across 13 sectors. Increases in customer satisfaction were most noticeable for organisations’ speed of response to written (letter or email) communications, for ease of getting through (over the phone), online experiences and the way complaints were handled. This relates back to the Prime experience; whilst many people are put off by the fee after the trial, the customer service that resolved the problem is quick to respond and ultimately focused on helping the customer.
On Amazon's site, there is a section dedicated to customer help. As explained with the 'Sell' section, the 'Help' button could be identified a bit more clearly
The page is separated into various headers to make the process more specific to the user's problem. This simplicity can be seen below. The ad placement for the 'Grand Tour' (with a warning symbol) feels very out of place, as this area of the site should solely focus on the customer experience. There is already a banner at the top of the page advertising the show; therefore, this addition feels unnecessary.
Upon checking out the Amazon Video & Music platforms, the overall layout improved much more. The Music site, in particular, is categorised very well, with various sections and functions being labelled specifically. In terms of Amazon Video, Simon highlighted one negative aspect that he found with using the platform. He said that, unlike Netflix, there is no way of restricting the site for different users. A children's film or TV show could be right next to an adult, gory series, which can be troublesome when allowing children to use the platform. Netflix solves this problem with ease by allowing user to pick who is viewing before exploring the film on show. This aspect should be considered with Amazon Video, and also Amazon Music (explicit songs).
For non-smart TVs, Amazon offers a Fire TV Stick, which essentially allows users to load prime and other streaming services through an app. Yet, for over 400 smart TVs, Amazon Instant Video is available - an app that is built into the TV when bought. This is one strong aspect to Amazon Prime as a product, as it is accessible to most televisions and devices.
As a whole, a few adjustments could be made to the overall layout; however, the functionality is fairly effective. The main problem identified with Prime is how it is marketed - it is not very clear what Prime is and there are too many name variants of it (Amazon Instant Video, Amazon Fire Stick, Amazon Video, Amazon Prime etc).
No comments:
Post a Comment