Jared Spool at BayCHI: Revealing Design Treasures from The Amazon On its surface, Amazon.com just seems like a large e-commerce site, albeit a successful one. Its design isn't flashy, nor is it much to write home about. But deep within its pages are hidden secrets—secrets that every designer should know about.

1. Revealing
Design Treasures
from The Amazon
Jared M. Spool (@jmspool) User
User Interface Engineering Interface
Engineering
#JaredRamblesOnAndOnAndOnAndOn

2. Amazon

3. Amazon

4. Amazon

5. Amazon

6. Amazon

7. Amazon

8. Amazon

9. “I like how Amazon does it.
Why don’t we do it just like
Amazon?”

10. What makes
Amazon so
attractive?

11. Visitors in December, 2009:
85,943,873

12. Revenue in 2009:
$24,509,000,000
Increase over 2008: 24%

13. 2009 Foresee Customer Satisfaction Rating:
87

14. Unique Customers Since Launch:
76,000,000
Ranking in World Population: 17

15. Orders placed in 2008:
175,000,000
Orders processed every second: 24

16. Amazon

17. Amazon

18. Amazon

19. Engage Through
Content
Amazon Treasure #1

20. Amazon

21. Amazon

22. Reviews:
3,532
Harry Potter and the
Deathly Hallows

23. Reviews:
5,591
Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer’s Stone

24. The Helpfulness Question
Amazon

25. Amazon

26. Caution
Be Careful When
Emulating Features

27. Target

29. Harry Potter 7 Reviews One Month after Release
Barnes & Noble (BN.com)
319
Walmart.com
331

30. Harry Potter 7 Reviews One Month after Release
Amazon.com
1805
Target.com
3

31. Ratio of Reviewers to Purchasers:
1 in 1,300
Purchases required for 20 reviews: 26,000
Viewers required at 2% conversion rate: 1,300,000

32. Treasure #1:
Engage Through Content
User commentary enhances the experience
Brings an air of authenticity to the content
Putting in a system to “bubble up” the most interesting or useful
content can dramatically improve the experience
Only a small percentage of visitors will participate
Amazon has millions of visitors a day. Do you?
You need to ensure you’ll have the traffic to make this happen

33. Don’t Fear
New Ideas
Amazon Treasure #2

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42. Amazon

43. Caution
Some Experiments Don’t
Pan Out

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54. If every customer spent $5 more per order,
it would make Amazon an additional
$875,000,000

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56. Amazon

57. Amazon

58. Treasure #2:
Don’t Fear New Ideas
Experimenting with new ideas is a critical part of innovation
Risk averse organizations produce crap
Sometimes experiments don’t quite turn out the way you
expect
Amazon is very comfortable with ideas not catching on
They have clear metrics of success (orders, revenue)
Risk is critical, but you have to minimize it at every chance

59. Eliminate Tool Time
While Delivering
Confidence
Amazon Treasure #3

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63. Amazon

64. Amazon’s Security Levels
Level 0: Amazon doesn’t know who you are (no cookie)
Level 1: Amazon knows you from a cookie
It’s how they know what books to recommend or
if you’re a 1-click customer
Level 2: Amazon wants to reveal something only you should
know
Such as your address or shipping history

65. Amazon

66. Goal Time vs. Tool Time
Goal Time: When the user is improving the outcome of the
experience
When the user is considering the product they wish to purchase
Tool Time: When the user is moving forward without any
improvement in the outcome of the experience
When the user is struggling with the security system
When the user is dealing with redesigned elements

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68. Amazon

69. Amazon

70. Facebook

71. Facebook

72. Amazon

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74. Amazon

75. Amazon 2007 Navigation
Phase-In Plan
Phase 1: Non-cookied visitors - 5,000 per day
Phase II: Non-cookied visitors - 1 per every 5
Phase III: Cookied customers - 5,000 per day
Phase IV: Cookied customers - 1 per every 5
Phase V: Everyone
Total time: 12 weeks

76. Caution
Not All Use Cases Are Equal

77. Items Easy To Find
with Search
The Princess Bride
Books by Tom Clancy
Movies with Téa Leoni
A Canon SD1100
Mario Kart for the Wii

78. Items Difficult to Find
with Search
The first Tom Clancy book featuring Jack Ryan
An inexpensive, but high quality SLR camera
A good toy for my six-year-old niece
Novels written by Nobel Prize for Literature winners

79. Amazon

80. Amazon

81. CD Baby

82. UMass Amherst

83. BLS.gov

84. Westlaw

85. iwbank.it

86. Wachovia

87. Treasure #3:
Eliminate Tool Time
Decreasing tool time increases user satisfaction
By shortening steps and removing obstacles, users are happier
Redesigns create massive tool time for users
Avoid redesigns completely by making all changes small and
incremental
Not all use cases are the same
Search works on Amazon because of their data
Match functions to your use cases, not the other way around

88. Never Forget the
Business
Amazon Treasure #4

90. Apple

91. BestBuy

92. Target

93. Site

94. Amazon’s “Negative
Operating Cycle”
Amazon turns its inventory every 20 days
Best Buy turns its inventory every 74 days
}
Standard retail payment terms: 45 days
Day
Best Buy
Cash Debt
0 44 74 76
Product Product Customer Customer
Ordered Paid For Buys Pays
}
Day
Amazon
0 20 22 Cash Float 44
Product Customer Customer Product
Ordered Buys Pays Paid For

95. Treasure #4:
Never Forget the Business
Amazon’s business model is deliberately designed
The site is designed to fit the business
You have to start with a great business model to produce a
great experience

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103. Revealing Treasures from
The Amazon
Engage your users by delivering great content
Don’t fear trying out new ideas
Eliminate tool time while delivering confidence
Never forget the business
Caution is warranted
Be careful when emulating features
Some experiments don’t pan out
Not all use cases are equal

104. More Info from User
Interface Engineering
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