Usability Evaluation Of Amazon: Methodology And Use Cases
- December 28, 2023/ Uncategorized
Use Cases
Nowadays many users have been engaging themselves in buying and ordering their products online. This users may be in need of applications on the web which are interactives in all ways. Users have been known to be as selective in all ways as they like interactive products that will be very effective, much efficient, very safe and much more satisfying when in use and easy to learn. This evaluation has led us in to asking ourselves what is an interactive system? The interactive system in usability testing an evaluation is kind of an app may it be mobile or websites that will allow users in performing their operations and functions in it such as the E-devices, electronic Commerce sites, software’s such as games and many other more (meich, 2017). There are many considerations that are always put ahead when we determining the capability of the usability (NIELSEN, 2013). Some of these considerations may include things like as follows;
- How consistency is your info and the design of the app(Sauro, 2013)?
- What is the look and feel of the GUI?
- Is the navigation easy while interacting with the webpages(Analysisa, 2018)?
- Do we have clarity and visibility of the app or website?
- Does the system match with the real World?
- Are there the help and documentation for the user?
- Does the application or website help users in recognizing, diagnosing and even recovering from errors?
- Can the system support the freedom and control of the users(Jakob, 1995)?
This report below aims at explaining the human interaction usability test that was performed on Amazon Online selling website. Amazon online Selling Website will allow its clients in viewing their products on their web app, they can place an order and required to pay online through PayPal or credit cards among others online way of paying. This report will give an analysis of the Amazon website is doing an investigation and observations of how the members or clients who uses or have used the Amazon website where we will use some questionnaire so that we can capture their ideas and much more evaluate their views (JannaDupree, 2014). The other area but not least will be providing an evaluation of all the findings and recommending depending on what we have collected so that the analysis will be meaningful and appealing in this study.
Amazon is an international online and shipping company that sells goods or products on wholesale and retail over their website globally. Amazon has been known for selling about over 50 million overall products daily which consists of different varieties such as the prime video products, the Electronics and computers and office equipment’s, the toy kids and babies among other more (Amazon, 2018). Amazon being online has its warehouses distributed all over the world where if you place an order then the nearest warehouse will be searched and if the product is found then they give you the price for shipping such and from there one can make the overall payment. For better interactions with the customers Amazon have created a look and feel website that is very easy to learn when searching hence making it easy when interacting with it and much more very easy when navigating across it (Yitmen, 2013). All amazon products are stored in the websites in their departments and categories (niloda, 2014). This website has been known for allowing clients and customers in viewing their products from any place as far as they have some internet (Dept, 2018). Just like any other website in amazon one can purchase by purchasing their goods where they place an order by adding it to the shopping cart and waiting for delivery (www.nngroup.com, 2014). The following explanation illustrates the way a customer will interact with website (system) while one making the selected products.
Methodology of the Evaluation
Figure 1 use case for Amazon Check in and check out
Using the concept as explained in the use case diagram below customers will interact with Amazon online selling company in many ways before purchasing of a product can be termed to be successful. In understanding the whole process that happens from the moment the customer opens the webpage on the amazon and start navigating across the webpages we will need to do a report that is based on the usability test, we evaluate it, and hence we look all the functional and non-functional requirements of the website. The test is on the basis of how easy it is when interacting with the website, the way the graphical user interface is consistent, the look and feel of the website and the clarity and visibility of info etc.
The test for evaluation is on the basis of applying scenarios that will help in guiding the customers or anyone participating in the usage of the Amazon website for do an analysis of all functionalities and the features of the usability in the proposed system. In this case we used a total of 10 people with no knowledge of Amazon in completing the usability tasks where every user is given 20 minutes while the researcher is observing how they are performing the tasks assigned to them. This task and the questions asked were all in relation what the Amazon offer to its customers. Some of this tasks included thing like:
- Creation of the account
- Sign up
- Login
- Selecting the products of one’s choice
- Adding to shopping cart
- Making an order.
There are a number scenarios explained here below and this makes it to be a one task at a time as explained from all the scenarios below.
In scenario one the user is needed to pay the Amazon website a visit for the first time that is (https://www.amazon.com), selecting the location one is, the next step is navigation to the departments for shopping where we are allowed to view various services and products offered by Amazon and which are available and the price they are offering at.
This is where the user will do a lot of navigation through the app which will include going through the departments and categories such as the garden& outdoor, gift cards, handmade, home & kitchen, industrial & scientific, movies & TV, pet supplies, office products, musical instruments among others. The reason to why this scenario is performed is testing the usability of the main navigation bar for transversing in to different parts of the website application or website.
In this scenario three the users were needed to do some item selection on the movies & TV and the office products menu bars by viewing their details where they were needed to add at least two items on from each department or category on the shopping cart.
The scenario put more emphasis on the number of webpages that are visited by the customer in the Amazon website. The user must have visited at least 6 webpages where we looked at design consistency, clarity of the context as applied in the visited webpages. Ion this scenario four the user was needed to write down all the webpages he or she visited and stating what all the visited webpages entailed and reasoning out if the represented content was relevant in terms of functions of the applications.
First Scenario
In the fifth scenario the user was required to the category of gift cards and create a gift card for any recipient for the selected product by choosing the design of the recipient gift card through which we were to provide the info of the recipient and the gift card sing a credit card.
As seen from above all the ten users participated in going through all the five scenarios one by one and with that knowledge and experience gained we were able to know how Amazon has grown to be what it is entirely. All scenarios did put all their focuses on the analysis of the usability of the whole website and the application, the GUI consistency, relevance of the content that is on the webpages visited and how easy it is when navigating across all different parts of the Amazon. These scenario discussed above are providing a step by step guideline explaining on how the users interacts with the Amazon website which ensure how it is when conducting the analysis and way that is effective in all manners.
When all users were done performing all the five scenarios successfully; a well and simple questionnaire with questions on the usability were supposed to be filled. The questionnaire prepared aim on was getting an understanding of the general view of the users on Amazon website and what they learnt during navigating across all the webpages visited in the website. The users were required to do a rating out of the 5 points and say if a success or a failure was really.
Methods that were used for evaluation really provided an interaction that is direct and make the users to have the feel feature in them when observing and reading the gestures. With the questionnaire it was easy knowing what the user felt about the Amazon website something that was very easy but hard to perform when observing the executions of the scenarios above. The methods were considered to be so effective in that they gave results that were appropriate for the research.
On the basis on what we have done above there are number of concepts that need to be put in to considerations as we realize them from the questionnaire (juben, 2013). In this cases all selected particpants were performed alternatively to all people following the same procedure so that we can achieve oure objectives (nizma, 2016).
In this scenario the aim was testing how easy it is to navigate through the Amazon webpages from indicating the location and lastly signing up and login in to the website and know what it entails I all departments and categories. In this section it was not hard for them navigating across the websites and it was easy for most of them as 7 out of 10 cited that part of the scenario to be not necessary and time wastage and they requested to be taken directly to the website and start doing their shopping, as most of them looked to have knowledge on such websites. The figure below shows the home page of Amazon website.
Second Scenario
Figure 2 homepage for amazon website
Not in all situations that the users selected becomes satisfied with amazon design of the homepage and many concluded that the design is complicated and very dull and that it is much picture oriented hence showing very little context in all manners. The table below shows how such ratings were recorded from how they responded.
Selected User |
Design (/5) |
Content (/5) |
Process Necessity (/5) |
Ease of navigating across (/5) |
1 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
|
2 |
4 |
3 |
0 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
5 |
5 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
5 |
6 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
7 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
5 |
8 |
3 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
9 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
4 |
10 |
5 |
4 |
0 |
5 |
In this scenario aimed at checking at how easy it is easy while navigating across the amazon website.
Figure 3 navigation across the Amazon website
In this case the main idea was testing how easy it is to navigate using the images and finding out if their content they are assigned is relevant to what they entails and checking how consistent the design favors the participants (vescoir, 2011). At this stage the selected users were able to navigate through the personalized gifts, electronics, shoes, gift cards, office products, movies and TV among others. After questioning their experience on the navigation of the webpages many of the participants said that the design was extremely okay and that it was easy to navigate and very direct to the point as it had all relevant info that was needed in all categories. All 10 of them agreed that the amazon website has good and visible look and feel and the way one relate with such webpages is very easily. The figures below explain some of the webpages visited by the selected users.
Devices and Electronics
Figure 4 devices & electronics
Food and Grocery
Figure 5 Groceries & Gourmet Food
Toys and Games
Figure 6 Toys & games
After the experience many commented on how easy it was in keeping track of which page one is or was and how easy it is easy navigating across back and fro. The scenario experience was marked as 4 out of 5 by most of the participants showing that most of them were satisfied with and appealed it was necessary for us to perform it.
This scenario aim was to test the way participants found it easy while selecting a particular product in the department, viewing the existing products and placing products inj the shopping cart before one places an order. At this level 8 0ut 0f 10 were able to add items to the shopping cart but many hard problems in choosing the required product and placing it in the shopping cart but overall it was a success and satisfying in all areas. The following is an example of such.
Figure 7movies & TV
The idea behind the fourth scenario is the testing of the clarity and the relevance of the info in all webpages and analyzing them and all the features present. Webpages in amazon website we selected randomly and it was concluded that it was very easy to move from one page to the other.
Figure 8 star wars episode iv-vi
Figure 9 Star Wars The Force Awakens 2016 Wall Calendar
This layout is very satisfying in all ways and many participants acknowledging that there were many features that made the website more usable when it came to products selection in all categories. Some of the features that were realized to have been added are such as explained here below.
Third Scenario
In amazon the sort by feature is used widely and as additional feature that brings in the specific feature that one may looking upon as show below.
Figure 10 Sort by
In this case the sort by feature is in form of drop down list menu where we can choose different options like explained here below.
Figure 11sort by features in Amazon
One can sort a movie by checking the:
- The price from lowest to the highest
- From the Highest to the Lowest
- Check the Average Customer review
- The newest arrivals.
The idea in fifth scenario is creating a gift card for a friend and send it a recipient that he or she chooses. Many did this at 7 out of 10 points making it a greater success. The three faered using this process because of the fear of using their credit cards but through the navigation process they were all okay and they showed understanding.
Figure 12 gift cards webpage
As discussed and analysed in all the five scenarios about 75 % were able to complete the process successfully without problems and this corresponds to 7 out of 10 of all the participants who participated. This number helped in us in rating Amazon to 4 out of 5 points although there were some issue but could not be understood as there is no website that is 100 percentage okay and satisfying in all situations. The overall results graph is as shown below.
Figure 13 usability acceptance test
From what we can see in the graph it is clear that that the usability has a very high rate showing clearly that the overall HCI factors such as the how consistent, how visible or clear, and the use of the functionalities as obtained from the 5 questionnaires as filled by the participants.
All participants gave the design and content alignment 4 out of 5. The one point lacked because the website was so much picture-oriented in the manner that all the situations pictures were used and in case someone has never seen such images then it will be hard for someone to understand the entire concep (Microsoft, 2000)t. The proposal on this section was to at least label most of the images used with just a single name so that if one clicks on it then it will take him or her to the detailed description of the image (nielsen, 2015).
The content was found to be relevant and very easy to understand. The way the additional features such as the sort by, search among other were aligned in a satisfying way and there were easy to locate and use (istqbexamcertification.com, 2012). All participants clearly stated that the content is visible and very clear in all manners from webpage to ordering what they had selected.
As seen from above info even from the graphs many participants were able to successfully navigate across all the webpages and executing their tasks in an effective way. The recording was that the website was easy to use and hence making interacting with it as very few and minimal challenges were seen during the process. Many agreed and said that but about 70 percent said it is clear and visible but 30 percent did not strongly agree on that.
The first recommendation will be on the improvement of the homepage design and add content in terms of text and make it to be in dynamic by use of such features like sliders that will help in seeking the attention of the visitors. The second recommendation that amazon will need to reduce the searching process and categorize all similar products in one departments. Lastly but not least is that the help section should be visible always and a live chart should be created hence allowing good interaction between the Website and the visitor or purchaser.
Conclusion
In concluding this it was evident that for having a good and quality interactive system as seen from above then the website or application will need to be visible to the users, it shows some clarity, very easy when navigating through the entire website, and lastly how easy it is locating what one is in need of. As we all know for a website to be told is a good quality interactive system it should have the assistive features such as the search engines, filter and sort by contents helping the users in locating their map location and much more navigating easily through the webpages. If the above discussed from the first scenario to fifth scenario will be observed then it will be easy for us to have a good and enhanced quality interactive systems.
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