Amazon recently released a new beta service, “windowshop”. The service allows users to browse new, popular, and promotional items in a serendipitous fashion. The experience is introduced quite politely, users are encouraged to “lose themselves”, the navigation method is explained, and for attentive readers, a sound warning (this site has sound) is given.
the windowshop product page is warm and inviting
Upon navigating to the first screen, the user is greeted with a large, friendly product image, notable for its stark contrast to the typical amazon product page. calls to action are small, and in their subtle way invite the user to browse rather than shout at them to buy. i love the idea, could see myself spending an idle 5 minutes at the site, and feel it is an effective way to merchandise products to a user not in an intense, research/buying mode. there’s only one problem, amazon won’t quite let me lose myself.
the user sees 8 navigation possibilities
each product view hints at 8 other products one step away from me horizontally or vertically. as a user i expect to be able to navigate to one of these 8 items (and remember you implied this when you told me on the first screen to navigate using my arrow keys – ok, technically i can’t move diagonally). this works well enough if i navigate laterally from the first product in any vertical product category; however, if i navigate deeper into a category and then move laterally, i am not taken to one of the 8 visible products, instead i’m taken to the first item in the category i’ve navigated to. my serendipity is now controlled and an important implied contract with the user has been broken.
you can’t control serendipity
serendipity is just that. a chance outcome encountered while aimlessly meandering. in the real world, if i start walking east on 14th street on the south side of the street and i hit fifth avenue i have 4 possibilities: north, south, east, and west. i have no magical power to transport myself to the north side of sixth and 14th, nor can any invisible hand transport me there. yet, this is exactly what windowshop does. i go north on fifth towards 15th, and suddenly i’m at 14th and sixth on the north side. NOOOOOOO!!! this is impossible. in the real world should 5 firetrucks descend on 14th and sixth while i’m crossing at fifth, if i want to see what’s going on i have to haul ass down 14th. and i might miss it. that’s serendipity.
a virtual experience allows certain liberties from the physical. i might be able to fly, or otherwise transport myself faster than i can in real life, but as a designer if that’s what you want me to believe, you must provide some sort of affordance which enables that behavior. let me control the experience otherwise you risk losing my trust. and when you lose my trust, you also risk losing my business (or whatever thing it was you were trying to coerce me to do).