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Breaking down Amazon's mega dropdown
111–120 of 203 posts
Re: Breaking down Amazon's mega dropdown
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's what I came up with too. But on thinking deeper, it doesn't seem to hold true. The kind of user who likes to browse will probably browse using a mouse, not a keyboard like us nerds. So the position of the cursor doesn't matter to them. I hardly ever go to Amazon and not directly search for something (except maybe during Black Friday deals when I just click on the banner). I'd bet Amazon loses money by making m…
You've gone to Amazon, had to do an extra click, and decided not to buy because of that?
I would have never thought so, but Amazon's own data has shown that seemingly trivial things like increasing page load times by 100 ms reduces sales by a non-negligible %.
Why do you think they obsess over dropdown menus?
Re: Breaking down Amazon's mega dropdown
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
First of all, "getting away" with something by relying on someone else to know what you don't know but need to use is hardly a virtue. If someone wants to work like that, to each his own. The problem I have is people telling the next generation that since you can "get away" without math, that it isn't important to take it very seriously as a programmer. Second of all, like you said, you can get the "hack" done withou…
There's something to be said about time investment. You're suggesting that tinkering takes time. If I want to keep current on all the math I learned in school, I'd have to invest a significant amount of time in addition to the time I already invest in keeping up-to-date with languages/frameworks/platforms/algorithms/datastructures/databases/etc. How often would I use this level of math? I know I use the others on an…
Sorry if this comes off as snarky, but I'm not sure of a better way to explain it. To me your comment sounds like:
"I have been walking through mazes my whole life with my eyes closed, and I make progress by feeling the walls with my hands. In order to get through each maze I need to remember lots of facts about how the walls in the different mazes feel when I touch them. If I opened my eyes now, it would take too much time, and be too painful to adjust to the light. I never tried to open my eyes, and even though a lot of people keep telling me it's a lot easier to get through mazes with your eyes open, I think they are wrong. Besides, the few and far between times I get stuck, I can always ask one of the people who can see where I should go next. And if you think I need to keep my eyes open, then the next thing you are going to tell me is I should use my sense of hearing and smell too."
Re: Breaking down Amazon's mega dropdown
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's what I came up with too. But on thinking deeper, it doesn't seem to hold true. The kind of user who likes to browse will probably browse using a mouse, not a keyboard like us nerds. So the position of the cursor doesn't matter to them. I hardly ever go to Amazon and not directly search for something (except maybe during Black Friday deals when I just click on the banner). I'd bet Amazon loses money by making m…
You've gone to Amazon, had to do an extra click, and decided not to buy because of that?
Remove the question mark - you've succinctly described funnel optimization.
Re: Breaking down Amazon's mega dropdown
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
First of all, "getting away" with something by relying on someone else to know what you don't know but need to use is hardly a virtue. If someone wants to work like that, to each his own. The problem I have is people telling the next generation that since you can "get away" without math, that it isn't important to take it very seriously as a programmer. Second of all, like you said, you can get the "hack" done withou…
There's something to be said about time investment. You're suggesting that tinkering takes time. If I want to keep current on all the math I learned in school, I'd have to invest a significant amount of time in addition to the time I already invest in keeping up-to-date with languages/frameworks/platforms/algorithms/datastructures/databases/etc. How often would I use this level of math? I know I use the others on an…
[deleted]
Re: Breaking down Amazon's mega dropdown
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's something to be said about time investment. You're suggesting that tinkering takes time. If I want to keep current on all the math I learned in school, I'd have to invest a significant amount of time in addition to the time I already invest in keeping up-to-date with languages/frameworks/platforms/algorithms/datastructures/databases/etc. How often would I use this level of math? I know I use the others on an…
Sorry if this comes off as snarky, but I'm not sure of a better way to explain it. To me your comment sounds like: "I have been walking through mazes my whole life with my eyes closed, and I make progress by feeling the walls with my hands. In order to get through each maze I need to remember lots of facts about how the walls in the different mazes feel when I touch them. If I opened my eyes now, it would take too mu…
Is that really the best you can do? That analogy has absolutely nothing to do with baak's point.
If you must reword and put his entire argument into a bad analogy, try this one:
"I've been walking through mazes all my life. This one time, I had to recognize a particular brand of poison flower, but I didn't know my flowers very well because flowers are rare in the maze."
And the answer?
"I asked my friend who was also in the maze: 'Is this flower poisonous?' He said yes. I said okay. We skipped the flower and moved on."
Re: Breaking down Amazon's mega dropdown
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
I took away the exact opposite - this is yet another example of not needing to know the right math. In the end, he can study up a bit and/or seek out a friend who does know, but be got the hack done without it. This is how it works with my wife and I sometimes. I write a lot of code, and she either fixes or writes or advises me on the bit I need to work much better. I admit we can't run the world or write good code w…
First of all, "getting away" with something by relying on someone else to know what you don't know but need to use is hardly a virtue. If someone wants to work like that, to each his own. The problem I have is people telling the next generation that since you can "get away" without math, that it isn't important to take it very seriously as a programmer. Second of all, like you said, you can get the "hack" done withou…
Probably majority of most software engineering is "getting away" with it as defined in this context. Which is trying to accomplish a goal with imperfect knowledge about the methodology.
If the majority of someone's engineering involves concepts and tasks that one is 100% knowledgeable about, I'd argue that that person has reached a stale state and shoudl probably seek out other challenges.
Specifically, I'm NOT saying that math is not important.
I'm saying that there's nothing at all wrong with getting by with imperfect knowledge in a domain if the process of "getting by" means expanding your knowledge in that domain.
Everyone learns on the job. I don't see the difference between brushing up on linear algebra from school, and learning that new framework or language or software suite.
Re: Breaking down Amazon's mega dropdown
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I had to guess it would be that it doesn't test as well. Similarly to a physical store wanting you to browse, I can imagine Amazon wants you to look at the suggested items. If you wanted to search you will still search, but you might also get distracted and purchase something you were interested in.
That's what I came up with too. But on thinking deeper, it doesn't seem to hold true. The kind of user who likes to browse will probably browse using a mouse, not a keyboard like us nerds. So the position of the cursor doesn't matter to them. I hardly ever go to Amazon and not directly search for something (except maybe during Black Friday deals when I just click on the banner). I'd bet Amazon loses money by making m…
I'd love to see the data, but knowing Amazon they have both extensively tested it and will not release the findings. Anecdotally I have never not purchased something because I had to set the cursor focus and I have purchased something I saw on the home page.
Also, if you're a nerd, just search right in the browser. If I want to search Amazon I never actually go Amazon first I just type "a", hit tab and then my search terms. Chrome is smart enough to do the rest and I get right to the SERP on Amazon.
Re: Breaking down Amazon's mega dropdown
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
You've gone to Amazon, had to do an extra click, and decided not to buy because of that?
I would have never thought so, but Amazon's own data has shown that seemingly trivial things like increasing page load times by 100 ms reduces sales by a non-negligible %. Why do you think they obsess over dropdown menus?
We're all arguing over data we don't have, but if they have that kind of information I think they have also considered search box focus. Seeing that they don't have it, one can draw the conclusion that for their site it was not profitable.
Re: Breaking down Amazon's mega dropdown
#120Hey all, I'm on the team that built this. We also built the redesign that launched last year. In fact, this was part of that. The article pretty much nails our implementation. Point of fact: Our team is recruiting. If you dig UX projects like this, shoot our manager Chad an email: chaddes at amazon dot com
Off-topic, but can't miss this opportunity: Please tell us why the Amazon homepage doesn't auto-focus into the search box. I think of this every single time I go to the site.
Plausibly it tests out that people who expect the arrow keys / space to scroll the page get more annoyed by having to click out of a search box than people who want to search right away get annoyed by having to click into a search box.