The Great Usability Schism

Master Jakob obviously doesn’t. Why do a 180º on one of his most beloved usability examples? As someone who builds sites for a living, I’ve always looked up to the Amazon model. Why? With revenues hitting $1.75 billion in the second quarter of this year, they must be doing something right UI-wise, else no one would be buying online at the levels Amazon has recorded the past 10 years.

Now my master has issued the ultimate decree: “Normal sites should not copy Amazon’s design“. What are Amazon’s sins? Here are 3 of the 6 sins:

Cluttered pages. Master says Amazon’s product pages have become decadent, putting on immoral features that forced key product information way, way below the fold.

Amazon’s product pages are littered with extraneous features, ranging from a “Gold Box” over a “wish list spree” to promotions for reading glasses and other irrelevant products. A single book page I analyzed contained 259 links and buttons. It was so cluttered that key product information — like publication date, page count, and average review rating — was three screensfulls below the fold (on a standard 1024 x 768 screen).

Internet-wide search feature. Master says Amazon has broken the 52nd Commandment of Homepage Usability:Thou shall not offer Search the Web on thy site.

A small part of Amazon’s clutter is caused by a search feature for the entire Web. This is a violation of guideline #52 for homepage usability: if people want to search the Web, they’ll go to their favorite search engine, not your site.

Advertising on product pages. Master says for all its success, Amazon has become proud and arrogant.

Amazon spends about two inches of each product page advertising other websites. Amazon’s position as the default place to buy books is so strong that it can afford to send shoppers off to other sites, knowing they’ll return later and buy the book anyway. You can’t make the same assumption. Sell to your prospects, rather than throw them away.

Right from the start of his edict, you get the feeling my master really hasn’t forsaken Amazon. He drops the ultimate disclaimer: “Paradoxically, Amazon’s design may work well for Amazon itself“. You have to save face somehow right? After preaching “Do like Amazon” for pretty much the past decade, one can’t just throw away a pillar to the usability temple my master has created. My master owes much of his success to the most successful dotcoms. These dotcoms showed the way. More importantly, their success strengthened the usability laws my master has shared. Amazon is to usability as St. Peter is to Christianity.

Read my master’s full Alertbox entry.