Jenifer Moore

Amazon.com

Based on “Don’t Make Me Think”, Amazon.com is a user-friendly website for making purchases.  The page is made up with three column navigation: the left column is your shop by department area, the middle column, which includes your search bar and Amazon’s top selling items and the right column, which includes the upcoming holiday and ideas.  The bottom portion of my page contains rows of my recent browsing history, which helps out because I may have done a search earlier in the day, found what I wanted and closed out to purchase at a later time.

Moving forward, the product I choose to purchase on Amazon was my required text for this class.  It was easy to find because as soon as the site loads, the search bar is at the top of the page, very easy to find and it did not require specifics as I just typed in the title of our text and a drop down list appeared to assist in searching for everything that had that title or name attached.

Once your selection appears in the user-friendly drop down box and you are re-directed to your selection, you can almost click on anything up to and including the book cover to select your item.  The far right column shows your shopping cart so that there are no surprises at checkout.  Although your buttons within the shopping cart column do not illuminate as you pass them, they sit up as if they are buttons making it easy to find.

After selecting your item and adding it to your cart, the next page displays your shopping cart and in BIG GREEN letters at the very top… you are advised: what items are in your cart, what the cost of your items are, what your gifting options are, whether or not you qualify for free shipping, and your editing options

The most satisfying feature to me is that the next page either gives you an option to sign-in, sign-up, or the ability to continue without a password.  At times, if I am forced to set-up an account I am discouraged and I almost never complete my order.  The button on this page is also a nice feature as it advises that you are signing in using their secure server for your credit information.  I am already a frequent flyer so my account comes up with all of my shipping and billing information.

The next page is a bit redundant but it verifies your shipping options, your shopping cart and once again it gives you gifting options.  The next to the last page takes your credit information.  Another nice feature is that the site retains your payment information as well as your gift card balances and your payment is as simple as a click.  The last page gives you one last chance to view your order making certain all is in place and the last click is placing your order.  After your order is placed, one last nice feature is that you are automatically sent an email that confirms your order and any tracking information.

Overall, Amazon.com is very user-friendly and there is not much thinking to it at all.