amazon userfriendly | Design Portfolio

Amazon userfriendly - bachelorthesis

For many people, Amazon has become indispensable as the market leader in e-commerce. According to statistics from Merchantday, an average of 12 million parcels were delivered in Germany each delivery day in 2018.

Amazon itself describes becoming the most customer-centric company in the world as one of its corporate goals. But doesn't customer-centricity also mean creating the best possible shopping experience for customers? Despite this, the problems within the app are obvious.

In this bachelor thesis project, I examined the interface of the Amazon app in more detail. The design is based on a survey of users, in which I was able to derive a general mood and identify the biggest problem areas from the evaluation. Using sketches and wireframes, I worked my way towards the final design piece by piece.

Project duration: 3.5 months - 2022/2023

Type of project: Bachelor thesis

Focus: UI design, shop design

Tools: Figma, Figjam

Methods: User research, user interviews, surveys, personas, user journey, user flow, sketching, wireframes, prototyping, visual design, design system, interaction design

Problem
What does the current amazon app look like?

The start page overwhelms the user with various selection options and topics.
The results page floods the user with information. The information on the sponsored products makes it even more difficult for the user to find their way around. Many options and little user guidance.
The lack of hierarchy in the detailed view of a product makes it difficult for users to find their way around the site. Many elements appear similar and the entire interface is overloaded.
The lack of structure is also evident in the detailed view of the products. The large amount of information about the product is simply crammed into the already small interface.

Research
Qualitative survey

To collect data as a basis for a possible redesign, I opted for the qualitative survey method within the research. The aim of the survey was to capture a general impression of the existing app and to identify the main problems and potential improvements. The survey comprised seven sections from the areas of general questions (about the person), personal attitude, use, experiences with the Amazon app, personal evaluation, relevance and optimization.

A total of 24 participants completed the survey anonymously.

Participant information

75% aged 21-30 years
Main reasons for use:
- Fast/uncomplicated ordering process
- product selection and variety
- fast delivery
the most frequent orders are between several times a month and several times a year
most users prefer to order on their smartphone

Pain points

Product reviews are important to users, but seem untrustworthy or purchased
Product descriptions lack structure
The structure and design of the app is understandable, but too confusing
Suggestions & recommendations and items advertised by Amazon were rated the worst. The suggestions usually do not match the interests of the users, and it is not clear why the products are suggested

Gain points

Wish lists are seen as helpful and useful
Structure is recognizable (but could be clearer)

The following problem areas emerged from the research and evaluation of the survey:

Problem area 1:

Lack of clarity

No clear structure or hierarchy can be seen on the screens shown. The overload of the page ensures that users are flooded with information and do not know what is important and what is perhaps rather unimportant.

"The app is far too confusing because so many things are displayed at once.
Surely this is supposed to make customers stay in the app longer and buy more, but I just find it a hindrance because I know exactly what I'm going to buy and nothing else." - anonymous

Problem area 2:

Structure of the app

The layout of the menu and the information architecture within the app was confusing for many users. Despite the predominantly positive feedback on the comprehensibility of the structure, many participants had a rather divided opinion on how easy or difficult it was to find certain functions or how well or poorly certain results could be filtered.

"I sometimes find the layout of the menus a bit annoying because you have to open so many tabs to track your order, for example."- anonymous

Problem area 3:

App design and layout

The third problem area relates to the inconsistent design and layout of the app. The many contents, some of which are the same type, such as buttons or links, are displayed differently. This inconsistency in the design system causes additional confusion and cognitive effort.

"Information overload, poor legibility of product information, no white space and therefore no focus." - anonymous

Process
Use case and persona

The research into the Amazon interface resulted in several use cases that should be taken into account in the further development of the screens. I differentiate here between the way in which users open the app and search for a product. Three different use cases emerged from the research.

Use Case 1:

Browse different products and categories

Users don't know what they are looking for. The end product is not restricted in any way and the product space can be relatively large.

Use Case 2:

Targeted search by product category

Users know which category, for example the technology and sound systems category, the end product should come from. In this use case, however, it is more about looking at different items and comparing them with each other. The product space is reduced to one product category.

Use Case 3:

Targeted search for a product

Users know which product they want to buy. This use case is about searching for the desired product in the search results or opening and buying the product from the wish list. The product space is minimized to a specific product.

Persona

Julia Hansen

Age: 29 years

Residence: Berlin

Job: Psychology student, part-time job

Julia is a psychology student and enjoys doing sports in her free time. She orders from Amazon about once a month, and the three categories in which she orders most frequently are: Books, electronics and computers, and household, garden and DIY. Julia uses the Amazon app mainly for shopping, but often also for product or price research.

Reasons for using it
Julia has had many positive experiences using the app and Amazon as an online retailer. Her main reasons for using it are the large product selection, fast delivery and low prices.

Problems
However, there are also a few negative experiences that bother Julia. In general, Julia finds that the app is rather cluttered and could be more clearly laid out. Apart from her actual purchase path, she doesn't always find certain things straight away.

Needs
Due to the large number of advertisements and the wealth of information, information is often lost or not even found. Julia feels that the app lacks clarity and structure and that the advertising within the app could be reduced.

"The user interface is too crowded, there are too many offers in places where they are not necessary."

"The Amazon app is very confusing overall, too many functions, sometimes I have to google to find the function I'm looking for."

Userflow

The illustrated user flow shows the sequence of steps and pages that users go through in order to achieve the desired goal of the order process.

Process
From ideas to screens - sketching, wiremframes and screen designs

Search results

Product info

Shopping cart

Design
Final design screens

I used the final screens to create a click prototype in Figma. The animation on the right is intended to illustrate the user flow from opening the app to selecting a product and completing the purchase.

In the next step, usability testing of the current design and the prototype is planned so that the prototype can be iterated and improved step by step.