Amazon Mobile
What makes a really great service a really great service? This is a difficult, if not impossible, question to answer. But, we do know that really great services exist. I would consider Amazon one of these really great services. That's why I was so surprised to see what they did with their mobile service.
I have no insight into the technological, design or business approach that Amazon took to tackle their mobile site, so I am only speaking from the point of view of a user and someone who likes to think about these types of problems.
Cut to the chase... Why cut all the great features which make Amazon so great on the desktop?
First things first, here is a screen shot of what an Amazon product details page looks like on the desktop. (Click to see the full size, 832K)
This is nothing new. If you opened the full version, you can see all of the great features that Amazon offers to users who are looking at this book. How knew you could get a page to be 6919 pixels high just by selling a book. That's amazing. The great thing about it is that most of the features are really useful. Once you have used the site a couple of times, you are able to find really good books on topics that interest you.
I love most of these features. I like to know what people bought after looking at this book, or what other books are popular choices to buy with this book. I like to see the tags, reviews, ratings, categories, lists and subjects. All of these features help me decide if I want to spend the money and buy this book.
Some may argue that the page is cluttered with stuff, I agree, but I like the clutter. I get all of the information I need quickly and easily. Actually, I don't remember the last time that I bought a book where I didn't first consult Amazon to read some reviews about it. I am sure that I am not the only one who does this.
So, now check out the areas of the page that are on the mobile version: (seriously click to see the full version, it's worth it 384K)
Why do this? I understand that pages need to be simplified for mobile viewing, but why cut features? What is the purpose?
It seems to me that everything that makes Amazon so great is lost in the mobile version. Why cut all these great features that make you different then all of the other book retailers?
One of the biggest features that is lost is your wish list. Who decided to cut this feature and why? Doesn't it seem a little bit crazy. Does it not fit into the user requirements for the mobile version. For example: I am sitting at my dentist's office waiting to get some teeth ripped out and suddenly I remember that there is a book that I want to buy. I have some time so I pull out my Treo and log in to the Amazon mobile site. I can't remember the name of the book, but no fear, I saved it to my wish list.
Doesn't that write up a pretty good case for having the wish list functionality on the mobile version?
Now, I don't want to rip on the design of the Amazon mobile site, because I think that it is good. I think that they got a lot of things right. I just don't understand why they cut so many of their really great features. Maybe it was a technology thing, but whatever the case I have been noticing this design of thing in mobile sites all over the place.
We don't need to cut useful features. What we do need to do is find a way to organize pages and design them so that they will be user friendly while still incorporating the useful features.
In closing: "Don't cut features, design mobile versions of them"
