For my first review, I chose to look at Amazon.com. I have been needing to purchase a new battery grip for my Nikon D3200. I have always preferred to use Amazon because of the simplicity, but I have not really stopped to think about why it is easy to use or why I like the site.
According to Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think, a website needs to be usable without forcing people to think. Websites should almost be navigated mindlessly. We should not have to ask questions for every click we need to make.
Amazon does a good job of following the thoughts of Krug. For the battery grip that I wanted to purchase, I went to Amazon’s homepage, and right at the top, found the search bar. When I began typing “Nikon D3200 Battery Grip” Amazon gave me suggestions based on the characters I was typing. In Don’t Make me Think, the example of the airports is similar to the auto-filling of Amazon. After clicking the suggestion for the battery grip, Once loaded, the page showed matching battery grips to what I was looking for. On the left side, I was given a chance to filter my search by brand, price, and battery type, and could also limit results based on specific categories from Amazon. I selected the first option shown, a Neewer battery grip. When added to my cart, I got a notification that it was saved, and asked if I wanted to view my cart or continue to look. I clicked on the Neewer grip, and scrolled down the page. On the page of the Neewer grip, it had reviews from customers that had purchased the same grip, specifications, and also suggestions similar to my original search in case I wanted a different brand. For fun, I clicked a suggestion for another battery grip, and looked at a Vivitar grip. This page had the same filters for my search, as well as more suggestions. I decided to keep the Neewer battery grip because it was cheaper and had similar reviews.
Overall, the simplicity of Amazon to purchase items is very high, and it does not make a person think too much to navigate around pages. The site is very clean and does not have much clutter. I feel that anyone could navigate Amazon without much trouble at all. All links are highlighted and easy to find, the white background is not distracting, and navigation is very easy. Amazon does a nice job of avoiding the questions of a viewer by allowing limitations of a search and being able to go back to the main page when needed, while saving searches and giving suggestions. The only change that I could suggest is making it more clear that hitting the Amazon logo at the top left corner will take the viewer to the home page.