I don’t go to Amazon for prices. I could just as easily shop for books at Barnes and Noble online. I suspect many of us go there and continue to return because we feel comfortable there. Like a country club where we are members, we tend to call it home and begin to take “ownership” of it (though obviously, we don’t own that site).

I swear to you that I didn’t realize how many ads were on that home page until the redesign. I never noticed because my eyes would key in on certain predictable areas of the page and I would quietly go about my business loading up the shopping cart. Now my eyes have fatigue.

I use amazon VERY frequently and have their “look” burned into my brain. This new look significantly changes their brand identity as perceived through their web design.

When I came to the new site, my first thought was, “What happened, is this right?” I didn’t panic! I didn’t start running in a circle waving my arms in the air. But Amazon doesn’t do a wholesale redesign like this often. In fact, they have had tabs for about a decade. So this is a major departure. I have seen tests from amazon before, but this is a major change.

So I exaggerated slightly my feeling of nervousness. You can call the blog police if you want. I will cooperate with the exageeration authorities.

However, I seriously think that they made some mistakes with this design. You can disagree. I won’t hold that against you. I am interested to see where they go from here.

The bottom line on these tests SHOULD be the “bottom line”. if this design makes them more money, then they should keep it and improve it. I have no access to that, but I hope they have the sense to follow the money.

Generally I’m not one to flame, but COME ON! How can I take seriously anything you say after? I don’t agree with much of your critique, but since this design is clearly still in the testing phase, I don’t think it really matters. They’re obviously working out the kinks, but I think it’s already a big improvement over the current design.

Most of that page is now ads. I can’t even remember the last time I used navigational elements at amazon. I am glad they did not touch the search box. They should just make search better. The other day I was looking for a Logitec presentation remote. When I typed those words into amazon search it said nothing found. Then I typed the exact same phrase into google. The first result was the product page on amazon!

-Avinash.

PS: Thanks for teaching me a new word: Menu Neck. I hate when the onmouseOUT happens, especially in deeply nested menus.

PPS: Watching the Jets yesterday was brutal. I thought they had a chance.