Amazon Shopping
Experience
Designing Price Evaluation Tools to Boost Customer Shopping Experience
Overview
During my internship at Amazon, I focused on enhancing customer trust and confidence in their shopping experience. My primary task was to analyze user research reports and identify core user problems in order to design a tool that simplifies price evaluation, enabling customers to make more informed and confident purchasing decisions.
Project Type
Internship Project
Duration
3 months
Team
Kurt Malueg (PM)
Varsha Kori (UX Designer)
My Role
UX Design Intern
Duration
3 months
Tools
Figma, InVision,
UserTesting
BACKGROUND
When customers visit Amazon.com, they are presented with an overwhelming number of products, even for something as simple as toilet paper. With so many options at different price points, it becomes challenging to evaluate product value and make purchasing decisions.
CHALLENGE
Amazon customers often feel unsure if a product’s price is a good deal due to various factors that influence pricing.
“How might we help customers easily evaluate product prices to make a purchase decision confidently?”
SOLUTION
I designed a simple and intuitive Price Evaluation Tool to help customers easily understand complex product value information.
CX Callouts
Price Tracker Tool: Displays market trends and Amazon prices, allowing customers to compare Amazon's price with market trends.
Time-Limited Deal Alert: Notifies customers of deals with a countdown, showing how much time is left to buy at a discount.
Positive and Negative Review Indicator: Shows the number of positive and negative reviews on pricing/value.
CX Callouts
Categorized price review buttons: Display reviews organized by specific topics for easy navigation.
AI-generated review summary: Provides concise summaries of overall reviews, based on selected topics.
DESIGN PROCESS
I followed a structured design process, starting with research, defining the problems, and exploring design solutions based on the insights gathered. From there, I created prototypes and conducted user testing to validate the solutions.
Customer Research
Price Evaluation Behaviors
First, I wanted to understand how shoppers determine the value of a product they are considering purchasing. I began by reviewing user research reports related to my project theme.
Customer Research
Task-Based Behavioral Shopping
Define Problems
Synthesizing research data
I used an affinity diagram and an empathy map to analyze and synthesize key research findings. These tools helped me organize the information and narrow down the core idea and problem to focus on solving.
KEY INSIGHTS
Customers rely on manufacture price when assessing and comparing product prices.
They frustrated by the frequent prices change.
But price fluctuations didn’t stop them from buying when they could compare and evaluate prices.
Price discounts and deals have a strong influence on customers' purchasing decisions.
Customers find value in having price analytical tools.
Analyze and synthesize findings
Mindmapping/Brainstorming
To further narrow down potential design solution, I also worked on quick mind mapping. From this I decided to focus on designing features that allow customers to easily evaluate product prices to boost customer's confident in making purchasing decision.
Ideate & Explore
Initial design exploration
For the first design exploration, I focused on creating a value Indicator that helps users quickly assess the value of a product based on its list price, quality, number of features, and demand.
Design Variations:
#1 Text-Oriented: Focused on textual descriptions without visual elements.
#2 Bar Graph: Features bar graphs to visually represent key value components.
#3 Emoji Sentiment: Incorporating an emoji to represent the overall sentiment of the product’s evaluation.
#4 Category Buttons: Features interactive buttons for categories like sound, material, weight, and size.
Ideate & Explore
Refined exploration
After the initial design exploration, I refined the concepts and narrowed them down to two options.
Key Components
Design #1:
Price Tracker: A toggle option allows customers to receive notifications when the price changes.
Time-Limited Deal Alert: Displays how much time is left to purchase the product at a discount.
Top 3 Buzzwords: Product quality review indicators show how many people have mentioned specific keywords, helping customers quickly assess product sentiment.
Design #2:
Demand Level Indicator: Shows how many people purchased the product within a specific timeframe, indicating demand levels.
Keyword Summaries: Provides an overview of how many customers mentioned specific keywords related to price and quality.
Ideate & Explore
Alternate Exploration
Building on the refined concepts, I explored additional options to further enhance the user experience.
Key Changes
Added tabs for a quick view to save screen space.
Placed customer price reviews in individual boxes.
Included the top 5 buzzwords with indicators to provide price insights.
Prototype / User Testing
Initial User testing
To gather feedback on the designs, I conducted user testing with 8 participants. The goal was to assess the effectiveness of key features and understand how users interacted with the interface.
Key Insights
6 out of 8 participants indicated they would be more likely to consider purchasing after seeing the time-limited deal alert, showing its impact on urgency.
4 participants found the top price reviews unhelpful, noting that value perceptions were too subjective to be a reliable metric for decision-making.
All participants (8 out of 8) found the price tracker and customer reviews on price to be highly useful, indicating these elements significantly contributed to their purchasing decisions.
Design Iteration & AB Testing
Based on feedback from the initial user testing, I shifted the design focus from "top price reviews" to displaying both positive and negative reviews. This change aimed to give users a more authentic and comprehensive view of the product’s overall value, helping them make better-informed decisions. After making these adjustments, I iterated on the design and proceeded to the next phase of testing to evaluate the effectiveness of the new approach.
Key Changes
Categorized price review buttons. (A)
Positive and negative review indicators. (B)
Key Insights
8 out of 10 participants preferred the T2 design, which displays both positive and negative reviews upfront because it quickly conveyed how many customers mentioned positive aspects of the product.
8 out of 10 participants found the inclusion of both positive and negative reviews to be very useful and authentic, enhancing trust in the product evaluation.
Prototype / User Testing
Conclusion
Project reflection
What I Learned
Validating assumptions and designs through testing is crucial to ensure they align with user needs.
Clear and effective communication is essential for smooth collaboration, especially in cross-functional team settings.
Next Steps
Engage with the science team to assess the technical feasibility and potential impact of the price evaluation feature.
Gain a thorough understanding of the technical requirements, potential challenges, and necessary steps for successful implementation.