Contextual Research
Characteristics of Successful User Interfaces
Clear - The whole purpose of user interface design is to enable people to interact with it by communicating meaning and function. If the audience is uanble to work out how the application works they will get confused, frustrated and become unsatisfied.
Concise - Although clarity is great, it is important to not over-clarify. If too many definitions and explanations are added, the interface will become over-crowded, so the information needs to be clear but also concise.
Familiar - An ‘intuitive’ interface means something that can be naturally and instinctively understood and comprehended. So, to make something intuitive, it needs to be ‘familiar’. When the audience is familiar with something, they know how it behaves and know what to expect, which makes their user experience more comfortable and pleasant.
Responsive - Responsive means fast. The interface as well as the software behind it, should work fast. Seeing things load quickly, or even at least, an interface that loads quickly imporves the user experience. Responsive also means that the interface provides some form of feedback. ‘Pressed’ state in buttons, “Loading...”, a spinning wheel or a progress bar are all examples of ways to communicate responsiveness to the audience.
Consistent - Consitent interfaces allow users to develop usage patterns. The audience are able to learn the different buttons, tabs, icons and other elements and can recognize them and realize what they do in different contexts. They also learn how things work, which enables them to adapt to new features quicker, extrapolating from those previous experiences.
Attractive - This is making the usage of an interface enjoyable. When the software is pleasant to use, the audience will not simply use it, but look forward to using it. What looks ‘good’ for any particular audience will vary, so it is important to adapt to the different audiences. ‘Aesthetics’ should only be used in moderation and to enforce function.
Amazon
Amazon.com, also called Amazon, is an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company that was founded on July 5, 1994 by Jeff Bezos and is based in Seattle, Washington. It is the largest Internet-based retailer in the world by total sales and market capitalization.
Since June 19, 2000, Amazon’s logotype has featured a curved arrow leading from A to Z, representing that the company carries every product from A to Z, with the arrow shaped like a smile.
Amazon Video
Amazon Video is an Internet video on demand service that is developed, owned and operated by Amazon.com. It offers television shows and films for rental or purchase and as part of Amazon’s Prime subscription, selected titles can be viewed exclusively to full Prime or Prime Video members, in which video membership allows viewing without full Prime. Like competitors, Amazon has pursued a number of exclusive content deals to differentiate its service, including a multi-year licensing deal with HBO in the United States.
The service debuted on September 7, 2006 as Amazon Unbox in the United States.[8] On September 4, 2008, the service was renamed Amazon Video on Demand.
On February 22, 2011, the service rebranded as Amazon Instant Video and added access to 5,000 movies and TV shows for Amazon Prime members.[11][12] On September 4, 2012, Amazon signed a deal with pay-TV channel Epix to feature movies on their streaming service, in a move to rival their competitor Netflix.In September 2015 the word “Instant” was dropped from its title in the US, and it was renamed simply Amazon Video.[21] In November 2016, the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon was pursuing streaming rights to U.S. professional sports leagues to further differentiate the service.
Netflix (Competitor)
Netflix, Inc. is an American entertainment company founded on August 29, 1997, in Scotts Valley, California,[7] by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph. It specializes in and provides streaming media and video-on-demand online and DVD by mail. In 2013 Netflix expanded into film and television production, as well as online distribution. As of 2017 the company has its headquarters in Los Gatos, California.
Netflix entered the content-production industry in 2013, debuting its first series, House of Cards. It has greatly expanded the production of both film and television series since then, offering “Netflix Original” content through its online library of films and television.[10] Netflix released an estimated 126 original series or films in 2016, more than any other network or cable channel.
Amazon Video vs. Netflix
- Netflix support is significantly better in some areas. For example, Netflix has been available for Chromecast for ages now, but we’re still waiting to get an official Instant Video app. However, you can use the Chromecast’s browser cast function to throw Amazon Prime Video from your laptop or smartphone browser onto your TV.
- There is an Amazon Video streaming app for both Android and iOS, and both now allow you to stream video over a mobile network connection (which the iOS app didn’t used to support). However, you need to download the Android app from the Amazon Appstore, not Google Play, and for some reason need to have the Amazon store app installed too. Given that you pay for Instant Video, needing to have the whole Amazon app suite on your phone seems pretty rich.
- One standout feature of Prime Instant Video is the ability to download certain films and TV shows onto your Fire tablet, Fire phone, and Android/iOS devices for watching offline. While not all titles are available, there’s a good amount of content which you can download. This is something that Netflix doesn’t currently offer.
- Netflix tries hard to make sure its apps are fairly consistent across all platforms. It looks fairly similar on a PS4, a Sony TV or an Android phone.
- All of Netflix’s apps take a “lean-back” approach, designed to be idly thumbed through in a pretty carefree fashion. You scroll up and down to flick through themes or genres, and left/right to check out movies or TV series within that sub-set. One of Netflix’s cleverest elements is that these little subgenres will depend on your preferences. While the basics stick around, other categories are determined by the films you’ve picked previously.
- Netflix has made its apps far more image-led and seamless than before, with information panels developing on the same page rather than switching to whole new one, and in some cases, with videos effectively starting automatically in the background.
- Amazon has evidently taken notes from the Netflix school of media streaming interface design. The Amazon Video apps of today are far heavier on the curation side of things than they used to be. Amazon seems to be gradually bringing its various apps closer together in terms of look and functionality, but they’re still not as uniform or as strongly defined as Netflix.
- You can tell you’re in Netflix as soon as you glimpse one of its apps, but Amazon’s various offerings often seem to lack a clear identity. However, what used to be a big problem for the service, i.e. the confusing mixture of content belonging to different payment structures, is no longer an issue in Amazon’s latest apps. What you see is what you can watch for free.
- Amazon’s apps still aren’t as clean and intuitive as Netflix. Amazon’s service is simply too sprawling and multi-tiered by nature. But its mobile apps in particular borrow heavily from its great rival, and there’s no longer a massive usability gulf between the two services.
- One way in which the Amazon apps are notably superior to the Netflix ones is in the aforementioned offline support. It’s possible to download Instant Video content for later viewing.
- Neither service has come up with a perfect way to relay thousands of bits of content, both services are generally strong. Netflix wins for the clarity and consistency of its UI, but Amazon has improved massively in this regard. Amazon has its reason to boast with its offline feature. The sooner Netflix adds this, the better.
Amazon Brand Guidelines (applies to Amazon Video and other Amazon brands)
Colour: Amazon Orange HEX #FF9900 RGB 255/153/0
Colour: Black HEX #000000 RGB 0/0/0
Colour: Amazon Blue HEX #146EB4 RGB 20/110/180
The Amazon logo must be no smaller than 1” wide for print or 72 pixels on screen.
Clear space around the logo is based on the letter ‘o’. Horizontal space required is the full width of the ‘o’ on either side. Vertical space required is half the height of the ‘o’ above and below.
Logo/Colour Combinations
If background colours other than black and white are used, the background must provide adequate contrast for the logo.
Target Audience Research
Demographic
- age 8-80 approx.
- new parents
- young adults developing shopping habits
- 45% of online buyers in the age group of 35-49
- increased focus towards the younger audience
Geographic
- all over the world
- selling digital where physical is difficult
Psychographic
- focus on personalisation and customer loyalty
- website is updated/re-designed often to keep it modern and dynamic
- quality customer care to develop long term relationships
- recommends/suggests similar products that a customer has liked/viewed before
- online purchasing is more convenient for business people, new parents etc.
A demographic target audience are consumers of a specific gender, age group, income level and educational level. Amazon’s demographic target audience are consumers of all genders, all ages, all income and all educational levels. This is because Amazon provides the opportunity to purchase almost anything, and has products available that would attract and satisfy any demographic segment. Statistically, however, 45% of Amazons online buyers are 35 to 49 years old. Therefore, there is an increased focus towards the younger audience, with features like ‘Amazon Student’ hoping to attract students, and ‘Amazon Mom’ hoping to attract new parents, so the young adults can develop e-commerce shopping habits.
A geographic target audience are consumers within a certain location; town, city, country etc. Amazon’s geographic target audience are consumers worldwide. They have a range of international sites such as amazon.fr, amazon.de, amazon.at and others, all of which are easily accesible through the main amazon.com and amazon.co.uk sites. As for the countires without a separate site, the main amazon.com and amazon.co.uk sites provide international shipping, with the principle of selling digital where physical is difficult, therefore driving Amazon’s popularity and profit.
A psychographic target audience are consumers that have certain attitudes, values or lifestyle. Amazon’s psychographic target audience are consumers of various attitudes, values and lifestyles. Amazon’s seemingly infinite range of products allows the business to provide for the needs of all type of consumer groups, but only if they are accustomed and comfortable with e-commerce. Online shopping overall doesn’t seem as reliable as physical in-store, as you cannot touch or see the product before you buy it. However, one of Amazon’s main focuses is quality customer care and developing long term relationships with the customers. By responding quickly and effectively to customer problems and inquiries, they are able to build trust and comfort in the brand. E-commerce is hugely seen as convenient and time-saving, so a big part of the psychographic target audience are people who are busy; with demanding jobs, newly born children etc. Amazon Prime is another feature for time-savers, with a paid annual membership allowing 1/2 day shipping for anything ordered. Amazon often also has deals and offers being advertised, such are aimed at a psychographic audience of those wanting to save money, such a single moms/dads, newly weds, new parents etc.
Related Visual Examples
In order to effectively re-design ‘Amazon Video’ it is logical to look at the current user interface (Figure 1). The service is accessible within the main ‘Amazon.com’ site, and although this is resonable as ‘Amazon Video’ is part of the main brand, for a user wishing to use just the single service this may feel as a hassle and a distraction. Because of this, the re-design will feature ‘Amazon Video’ as a separate url website. The interface at present also feels very chaotic, with a lot of advertisements and seemingly no grid structure of content. This could become annoying and an eye-sore for the user, so the re-design will attempt to utilize more grid guidelines and pay more attention to content quantity and size. The navigational links are small and get buried within the rest of the content, so they may go unnoticed by the user and cause frustration if they cannot find where they wish to go. Because of this, the re-design will focus more on navigational ease and guding the user throughout the interface without confusion. As the brief requires the re-design to be an enhancement of the service, not a complete re-brand, the logo, brand colours and content groupings will stay the same. The current hierarchy of visual information will also be taken into consideration.
‘Netflix’ is the evident biggest competitor for ‘Amazon Video’, so a look at their interface can help to identify what makes them so succesful. The interface (Figure.2) is very much image-led, with a large focus on the content, with significantly less non-content related advertisements than ‘Amazon Video’. This, along with the signature horizontal strips of content browsing, is what ‘Netflix’ is known for. In response to this, the re-design of ‘Amazon Video’ can undoubtedly benefit from less advertising, as well as a more distinct content browsing layout. The navigation throughout ‘Netflix’ is clear and succint, information panels for selected TV shows or movies develop within the same page, allowing the user to browse content with less hassle and feel free to be more decisive. The re-design for ‘Amazon Video’ should also pay greater attention to the user expierience, and make content browsing easier and more streamline.
‘Vudu’ is an alternative for ‘Amazon Video’. The service is slightly different as it is Rent/Buy only, however, it’s interface (Fugure.3) is well structured and effective for its purpose. The content is presented as the focus of the interface, with a clean and specific grid system that allows the user to easily differentiate between the titles. Re-design of ‘Amazon Video’ should also adapt a fixed grid system that could allow attention to be drawn to the content without it becoming over-whelming. User navigation within the design is very clear and distinct, especially with the use of large text size, the use of a ‘moving tab’ to reflect which section of the content the user is accessing and the accompanied use of bright yellow to further highlight that. The ‘Amazon Video’ re-design should also explore design elements such as text size and colour, in order to enhance user navigation and give the website as a whole a more comprehensive and cohesive image.
‘Itunes’ is yet another alternative to ‘Amazon Video’ with a Rent/Buy option only. The service is part of and available through the ‘Itunes’ music app, similarly to how ‘Amazon Video’ is available through ‘Amazon.com’. However, where ‘Amazon Video’ is buried within the multi-layered functions of ‘Amazon.com’, within ‘Itunes’ the finite yet precise options of music, TV and movies all work cohesively and are distinctly presented. The re-design of ‘Amazon Video’ also needs to edit down on the numerous options provided to the user, and draw together the scattered content groupings. The interface layout of ‘Itunes’ has an evident grid system which enables them to place a lot of content into a smaller space, however, due to the smaller size that the app initially opens up to, the content can become lost and difficult to differentiate. When re-designing ‘Amazon Video’ content size should be considered in relation to size of the platform; where website access can afford to fit more and smaller content without losing clarity, other platforms such as mobile app would have to utilize bigger content windows and navigation.
