2.
Overview
The purpose of this memo is to begin to develop a research project to discover opportunities for the improvement
of the experience amazon users have when browsing and searching for a product.
1. In what ways / contexts Amazon users are experiencing frustration on the path to purchase at
amazon.com
2. Discover specific pain points in the user experience
3. Create solutions to solve those pain points
The Problem to Be Researched
The primary task involved in e-commerce of this scale is finding by browsing or searching. Selling products in
every conceivable category is a search challenge. What changes should be made to information architecture and
User interface design to improve the user experience for both browsing and searching for products and reviews.
High level questions
● How do people navigate the site when they’re looking for something specific?
● How do people navigate the site when they’re browsing a high level category like “women's clothing”?
Research Questions
The following questions are raised by Amazon.com’s current features.
● For those who do not know in advance the exact product they want,
Amazon's landing page presents the user with a difficult gulf of execution.
The discoverability of features for browsing by category are not visible and
the dropdown for search by category is easily mistaken for browse by
category due to an expectation of functionality for both searching and
browsing. Amazon’s category search is not displayed on the landing page.
There is no UI option “Browse by category”. Browse by category is an
available option but only accessible from a hamburger menu located in an
unfamiliar location (upper left).
To what extent is this invisible category navigation driving users to search
“laptop computers” rather than browse electronics / computers / laptops?
● Search by category is available from a dropdown menu for the search bar,
however the number of categories are inconsistent; differing from browse
by category. Does this inconsistency support the differing user goals of
browsing vs searching? Or, why are they not consistent?
● The results page for “laptops” are different when found by category
browsing and searching for “laptops”. Does this inconsistency support the
differing user goals of browsing vs searching? Or, why are they not
consistent?
3.
● Browse category results pages mix search results with navigation and ads.
This defies the expectation that the category “laptops” will yield a results
page of laptops. Does this confuse users?
● Search within categories is a time wasting exercise. Searching all categories
for “laptop” yields the same results as selecting computers and then
entering laptops as a query.
● There is no option for searching reviews. This is a goal that users can only
pursue by searching or browsing to a specific item and scrolling to the
reviews at the bottom of the page.
● 1-16 of over 90,000 results for "laptops" are presented with no
functionality for a grid view.
Justification
A cursory evaluation of Amazon.com for fundamental usability issues revealed a number of concerns. Visibility,
discoverability and familiarity are all at issue for the users initial gulf of execution in which users try to figure out
how to use the site to find a product.
Category navigation mixes expected product categories with amazon services, account management and unclear
labels that do not appear as topics or product or services.
Services that are not
products
Product categories Other categories
4.
Having performed an action users are again presented with a difficult Gulf of Evaluation, where they try to figure
out whether their actions got them to their goal. Results pages for both search and browse do not conform to
expectations for results. Results pages for so many items should attempt to minimize the amount of scrolling
where possible. Is this a carpel tunnel machine?
Google (the expected format for results) Amazon search results
Amazon category page
Hypothesis :
Research changes to information architecture and user interface usability issuesConducting user research to
improve upon the current gulfs of execution and evaluation amazon.com users
5.
face will contribute to improved search and browse experiences. Improved search and browse experiences
support feelings of competence for users and contribute to improved brand affinity while also driving sales by
reducing the overall number of abandoned searches while also improving the accuracy and success of consumers
efforts to find the best product to suit their needs.
Feasibility
Research for changes to information architecture and user interface usability issues are feasible. Usability studies
can be conducted with participants in-person or remotely. The mainstream use of Amazon allows for easy
recruitment of research participants across demographics.
Potential Research Methods
Contextual Inquiry: During these interviews, researchers watch and listen as users work in the user’s own
environment, as opposed to being in a lab. Contextual interviews tend to be more natural and sometimes more
realistic as a result. They are also usually less formal than lab tests and don’t use tasks or scripts.1
Survey, System Usability Scale: The System Usability Scale (SUS) provides a “quick and dirty”, reliable tool for
measuring usability. It consists of a 10 item questionnaire with five response options for respondents; from
Strongly agree to Strongly disagree. 2
Task Analysis: Task analysis is the process of learning about ordinary users by observing them in action to
understand in detail how they perform their tasks and achieve their intended goals. Tasks analysis helps identify
the tasks that your website and applications must support and can also help you refine or re-define your site’s
navigation or search by determining the appropriate content scope.3
Task Scenarios: give a detailed answer to the question: how is the user going to operate the thing you are to
design? It records descriptions of the users’ tasks to make clear.
● what the user is trying to achieve (their ‘practical goal’)
● the environment within which the user works (task context)
● what the user actually does in detail
Affinity Diagrams: Distill the patterns and useful insights from the many individual quotes and data points you
gather through interviews and observation. 4
Cognitive walkthroughs: Cognitive walkthroughs are used to examine the usability of a product. They are
designed to see whether or not a new user can easily carry out tasks within a given system.
6.
User Personas: Personas are fictional user archetypes. They are a composite model created from the data
gathered by talking to real people that represents a group of needs and behaviors. Completed personas embody
the behavior patterns and priorities of real people and act as a reference point for decision-making.5
Card Sorting: Provides insights about users' mental model of an information space, and help determine the best
information architecture for products, applications, or websites.6
Eyetracking: Seeks to understand how users visually interact with interface designs.7
Select Methodologies
Contextual Inquiry: During these interviews, researchers watch and listen as users work in the user’s own
environment, as opposed to being in a lab. Contextual interviews tend to be more natural and sometimes more
realistic as a result. They are also usually less formal than lab tests and don’t use tasks or scripts.1
Survey, System Usability Scale: The System Usability Scale (SUS) provides a “quick and dirty”, reliable tool for
measuring usability. It consists of a 10 item questionnaire with five response options for respondents; from
Strongly agree to Strongly disagree. 2
The best user research for big box e-commerce involves observing people performing their actual tasks
(shopping online) in their natural environment.
The initial round of research will consist in, contextual inquiries that combine interviewing, observation and task
analysis. This research will be conducted at the home or workplace of participants. The sessions will begin with
traditional interview questions about their lifestyle, interests, shopping habits, and similar ecommerce sites on
which they shop. This brief series of questions will be followed by a cognitive walkthrough. Participants will be
given a task to complete while being observed working through it and encouraged to comment on what they are
thinking as they proceed. This process will allow for collecting valuable feedback on obstacles and
misunderstandings that they encounter.
Three product users will be interviewed briefly before participating in a session during which a tasks will be
presented. Participants will answer three questions: what will they do next, what do they expect to happen, and
what feedback do they have. The next screen will be presented based on participant answers and the three
questions will be asked again. This step will go on until the task is complete.”
7.
Endnotes
1. www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/index.html
2. www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/index.html
3. www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/index.html
4. Erika Hall. “ Just Enough Research.” A Book Apart
5. Erika Hall. “ Just Enough Research.” A Book Apart
6. Erika Hall. “ Just Enough Research.” A Book Apart
7. www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/index.html
8. Tomer Sharon. “It's Our Research.” Apple Books
Works Cited
Hall, Erika. Just Enough Research. 2014.
“Methods.” Methods | Usability.gov, www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/index.html.
Sharon, Tomer. It's Our Research: Getting Stakeholder Buy-in for User Experience Research Projects.
Elsevier, Morgan Kaufmann, 2012.
