Amazon mobile app redesign
It is a typical Tuesday. I was enjoying a short break from a busy day of work. I decided to open the Amazon app on my smartphone, and this showed up in my face.
“Wow… what a bold act to redesign the homepage.” This popped in my head when I saw the redesign. And I had this immediate feeling of anxiety. Here, I’m going to explain my feeling and attempt to find out what accounts for it:
Inset bottom navigation
This sounds weird, but is exactly how I felt with the navigation control: fixing but floating. The navigation does not take over all the space at the bottom of the screen. Instead, it allows the merchandise to go pass beneath it! It almost seems like the merchandise is blocked by the navigation control. A similar concept of this should be the chatbot or help option we usually see at the lower right corner of an app. Did the designer attempt to create an experience like that? I hope not, because the chatbot/help option completely serves a different purpose than the navigation control.
Removing the Amazon logo (also a home button) from the home screen
The logo of a brand significantly contributes to the brand recognition large companies are trying to build and maintain. A lack of the Amazon logo from the redesign of the home screen takes away from the experience. Not only did the Amazon logo serve as brand presence, but it was also a home button. This means, prior to the redesign, users were able to navigate back to the home screen by tapping the Amazon logo at the center top of the app, which was very noticeable and easy to use. Navigation to the home screen now requires users to tap the small home icon at the bottom left of the app. It is hidden and not easily accessible compared to the former design, and could create some usability issues.
Placing the hamburger menu at the bottom right corner of the screen
The position of interface elements impacts how easy it is to find and use.
1.Discoverability:
Typically, human eye reads a website from the first line at the top to the bottom and from right to left, following a Z-shaped pattern.
On an e-commerce website, one of the main things people would do is access their account or past orders. The placement of the account and menu icons at the bottom can conflict with users’ behaviors — users would need to spend time scanning the screen to discover and locate the account and menu buttons.
2.Ease of use
Once a user is in one of the Amazon pages, say Your Orders, the use of the app creates more difficulty. Two of the most frequent options — the back option and the menu button — are in diagonal positions, which could create a hassle for users to perform activities on the app, not to mention those who enjoy using their phone with one-hand operation gestures.
Conclusion
Interface redesign is needed periodically as a company grows and matures to catch users’ attention and refresh its brand presence. Despite this, the ease of use and user experience should remain unchanged.
