Upon opening Zappos.com, I immediately noticed the search bar. Front and center on the page, the product search bar was easy to find and simple enough to use. The search button was the first to catch my attention, for it was a bright orange. The only other button on that page was the “My Cart” button. My eyes were drawn to both of these areas, and a connection was made. It was clear where I was meant to search for the product of my choice, and where it would live after I added it to my cart. After these assessments, I entered my search criteria – “Ugg boots” – and hit search.
My search results showed up instantaneously, but the first page of options were mostly children’s shoes. This; however, barely slowed me down, for I knew just where to refine my search (probably because of my online shopping problem). For a user who has never been in this situation before – a likely scenario, believe it or not – will have a little more trouble with this minor hiccup. Nevertheless, the user will find the options on the left of the page to narrow their choices and click on “women.”
Once the products page was updated, I scrolled down the list a bit and found the style of Ugg Boot I was looking for. I was taken to the specific product page, where the price was displayed in a large and appealing font, along with options to choose a different color and then choose your size. Right underneath these options was the “Add to Cart” button. It was easy to find, obviously, but I noticed that it was not the same orange color as the cart button at the top of the page. Maybe the site designers wanted it separate? I don’t understand why that would be. That is perhaps the only question I asked myself during my shopping experience. Maybe I noticed this because I am a designer, or maybe it’s something the average user questions. In my opinion, why leave that to chance?
Overall, I found that Zappos.com is an effective and easy-to-use site. I searched for the product I wanted, refined that search, customized the product’s color and size, and added it to my cart in less than two minutes. It would be difficult for me to explain how to make it easier to use. Like I mentioned before; maybe it was easy for me because this is something I do a lot, or maybe it really is that easy.