Guidelines: first choose a large eCommerce site like ThinkGeek, Puma, Fab, newegg etc, then search for a product you are interested in and place it in the site’s shopping cart. Because it takes a great deal of planning to create something that takes little or no thought to use reflect on how much the site made you think about this process. Refer to the reading and discuss how the site either makes it easy or not to find and buy a product you are interested in.
I chose to visit Amazon for my site review. When I got to the website, I was immediately overwhelmed. There was so much going on that I didn’t know where to go first. There was pictures and text everywhere. There’s no sense of hierarchy either. Once I saw the search bar I went and clicked the all button to see what was in it since it looked that it should be the first thing I should press on. Then a huge list popped out from it and I felt a bit anxious because there were too many options, there are too many categories and some of the categories seemed like they could possibly be combined with each other. So I ignored that and went to the search bar and typed in “shoe storage” because I have been looking for a storage space for my shoes. The products that showed were not what I was looking for. The products were coming from the category “Home and Kitchen,” which is far off from what I was looking for. The website clearly ignored what I was searching for and gave me products that were sponsored. So then I typed in “shoe shelves” and it was close to what I was looking for. So it seems like I have to be a little more specific about my search. The products did not look like it was organized in any specific way as well. Once I found the product I wanted to purchase, I clicked on the product and it took me to a page that talks about the product a little more. Once I’ve decided on the bag, there was a big yellow button that read “add to cart.” I clicked on it and it took me to a log in screen. I typed in my username and password to my account and it walked me through the steps to checkout. Once I entered in all of my information, there’s another big yellow button that read “place your order.”
Overall, I feel like Amazon could improve their website a little bit so that it is easier to navigate through and not as overwhelming. Not only could they make it a little easier to navigate they could combine some of their categories because there are many products that could be in 5 different categories and it gets confusing and makes the visitor feel dumb. A visitor should not have to think too much when going on the website unless they are thinking about what they are wanting to buy. I understand that Amazon is trying to showcase all of their products to their customers but it is overwhelming the way they did it.