User Interface

Analyzing web sites is something I like to do. I have jotted down how the web site looks and what could be improved for most of the websites that I have used. I have analyzed as a user, what are the difficulties using the website and what kind of friendly features could be implemented. As a hobby and as a user, I have analyzed Chinmayi’s blue elephant, Macy’s, jcpenney, kohls, APS, Amazon, Apple, some restaurant websites and some more.

I like Amazon, Apple and Macy’s website a lot. Someone asked me to analyze Amazon’s website once and asked me what kind of improvement one can make in the website. There could be several one can think of. I am not a very brilliant person nor have I extensively re modeled UI applications. But I have enormous interest in UI. I feel presentation makes a great impact on people as a first step before anyone cares to explore a feature. In that aspect Apple and Amazon have unbeatable websites and products. Don’t they?

Here’s what I could think of as an improvement in Amazon’s website:

Amazon lists all the recent searches done by the user. Say like I look for watches, it always lists relevant watches and deals on the home page and all the recent searches made so far.

1) Going a step further, I would think based on a combination of searches made, like jewelry+watches+shoes, it would be a nice feature to suggest other things like clothes, handbags etc although a user would not have looked up these items in the past. I feel that way it is an option for the user to look at other product lines that might be of interest to him/her.

2) Similarly when I look for a watch of particular prize, I would like to have this feature:

When I move my mouse over the watch of a particular prize, it should display watches in that range like a flickr photo page.(although the watches are displayed based on the sort type we choose from the drop down in the page currently).

May be the points that I have listed out are silly..but still I tried to attempt :)

I am an Apple user since 2007. I was not aware of Apple Ipod until it was gifted to every employee in my company. I just love the features, UI, friendly usage etc. Brilliant brains behind those products!

Coming back to UI psychology, Its very important to analyze human minds to design user interface for a website, product because in my mind the first impression creates the best impression.