Post #2 – Web/Mobile App Critique [CLO: 4]

Hello class! I chose the Amazon Prime app because it has an app for shopping and includes free apps like Amazon Music and Amazon Fire. I used these apps for several years for online shopping, streaming services, and product research. In this discussion I will cover some of the capabilities and features of the app, how I have used it to help find the best products, streamed videos, and music for about anything of which you can think.

The designers did an excellent job making it compatible with smart phones, smart TVs, and other devices with internet or Wi-Fi connections. I can use this app anywhere there is access to the internet. The Amazon Prime home page (Figure 1) layouts the key topics and provides a search option for any subject not listed. For example, the home page provides a list of the most popular products and services provided, if you find something that interests you, just move the mouse curser on that icon and click, the app will automatically send you to a web page for that item or service (Figure 2). Once on the new page, you get a list of products. Each item is rated on customer reviews, the price, shipping costs (many of the Prime items have free shipping), and delivery date are displayed. By clicking on a product more details, specifications, and features are shown. Going back to the search result page, you will find on the left-hand side a column where you can refine your search by, price, name brand, product rating, or for some products you can select detail specifications, like size, weight, or color (Figure 3). The home page includes a list of your previous purchases, product searches, and related items. This this useful because it allows you to keep record of your session for future reference.

The best way to demonstrate the usability and functionality of the Amazon Prime app is to do a search for an item. I will do a search for a curved monitor to use with my laptop. I will make the requirements simple, cost less than $400, it must have a high-resolution display, LED, aspect ratio of 16:9, and at least 30 inches. Using Amazon to search for a curved monitor is easy, you just type in the product name and click on the search icon.

Figure 1 Amazon Prime Home Page

 

Figure 2 Search results for a curved monitor

Figure 3 The usability of Amazon Prime to refine the search parameters.

In the search results you will find a list of products to choose from. if you scroll down on the page, you will see the comparison table (Figure 4) that lists the best options. This table will show the most notable features and capabilities, customer ratings, delivery options, and cost. To select, just click on “Add to Cart” and you will go to the check-out page. The check-out page shows all your purchases and allows you to make changes or add/delete items before finalizing your purchase. The service provided by Amazon is good and I can usually find items or products on their site that are not available anywhere else. The site does list new and used items and this how they differ from other shopping sites. Adding used items as an option increases the availability and reduces the cost of products.

Figure 4 Comparison of different curved monitors

One of the issues with the Amazon Prime app are the customer reviews. Since it is all done by Amazon, there is no way to know for sure how accurate it is. They only highlight the 4 and 5 five-star reviews. The best way to resolve this is to have a non-profit or government agency review the customer satisfaction rating. Another issue is how hard it is for small businesses to put their products on Amazon to sell. The setup is complicated (there are at least ten forms and agreements you need to process), the costs are too high, they charge a fee and a sizable percentage of the profits. This can make it too expensive for small businesses to use their service. Amazon needs to reduce or simplify the number of forms and delete the fees for small business to put their product on the website.