Quick Amazon Webpage Analysis

Julio Silva
Jul 24, 2017 · 3 min read

Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer, they originally sold books but now they are selling a wide variety of consumer goods. They had another name back in 1994 as Cadabra but changed it to Amazon for the website launch in 95. I never got the chance to see the original site, how it looked like, but right now their web content is just as big as their success.

Speaking of web content, lets talk about the IA (Information Architecture) behind Amazon. The IA is solely relying on its search feature, because there is no sense of hierarchy in the navigation bar as far as content value. Looking on the bright side the first thing you see when you launch the site is the search bar, you select the input the field, type in what you are looking for and depending on what you entered an auto-suggest will provide a list of suitable results. So even though the IA could be redone into something more relevant to the user, that search field makes up for it.

Search Field

This type of search is a common Design Pattern by the way, for those who don’t know what that is, Design Patterns are functions used throughout most or all websites to solve a common problem.

Amazon’s search field isn’t the only design pattern they are using, there are more than seven patterns counted as of now. I noticed they are using but not limited to: Sign In/Register, Share Tools, Numbered Pagination, Filter, Content Utilities, and Carousel. These are functions commonly used to solve problems most websites have in common, but depending on the business and how the content has been strategically placed it can be accounted for its low or huge success. Here is small glimpse into how Amazon utilized some of these Design Patterns.

  1. Filter — Refine content by selecting different options to suit what you’re looking for.

2. Numbered Pagination — Useful when you have lots of content to show, lets you navigate through it simply and quick.

3. Carousel — To view lots of content in a limited amount of vertical space.

Design Patterns are important for progress, its what makes a website become synced with everything else. Moving forward I decided to conduct a simple Task Flow to see how many steps it took for me to place an order on Amazon.

It took nearly 11 steps for me to place an order on Amazon, some of these final steps I found unnecessary. I didn’t find the point in having a list in the first place when I could just add the items directly to the cart. It should be an option to create a list or not, I couldn’t find a way around it so I decided to make one in the end.

Amazon indeed is a great company, I use it all the time to order the most useless things that satisfies me in the simplest way. Sometimes like having an okay IA or having to perform extra steps into completing an order can be a drag, but the product itself is excellent and customer satisfaction is off the roof. These are just some of the perks Amazon provides besides having an extensive inventory of consumer products.

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