Summary | Audience | Task | Navigation | Functionality
Who is the site for? Who are
the intended users?
Users looking to buy or learn more about books, music, films, electronics etc.
What do users want to
accomplish?
Users want to find a specific
item, its availability and its price.
Users also want to educate themselves about a specific topic.
They also want to explore what kind of items are available and what other users
think about these items.
In short, users want to buy or educate themselves about specific categories
of consumer items.
What are the needed skills?
Good fit with skills of intended users?
Users need to know specific
information about the desired item.
The available search interface is a good fit for the (bits of) information
users may know.
Also topical categories are provided to help users zoom in and find items
related to their interest.
Users need to be able to navigate the site - either to narrow or broaden their
search.
The site offers great and easy navigational support.
What tasks are users trying to
accomplish?
These tasks need to be enabled:
1.
Searching for a specific or general item, i.e. a book
by a specific author or a book dealing with a general topic.
Both inexperienced and experienced users need to be supported.
Narrowing or broadening of search interest, using either a
listing of (sub)categories or a Boolean interface.
Amazon supports both inexperienced and experienced users.
It offers also multiple ways to search for an item: direct search,
search-by-category,
search-by-recommendation, search-by-association based on expressed interests
or current history.
2.
Community - users want to find out what others think
about a specific item or
what other items people with similar interests have found of value.
Amazon makes it easy for users to write and read reviews.
3. Shopping - a shopping cart is provided that is always accessible. Items can be easily added or deleted.