Jeff Bezos Has Been Busy

...Or at least his web designers have been.

Hot on the heels of the IMDb "Twin Peaks" DVD site look, it turns out Amazon.com has been remodeled. *

They really are going for a minimized header; a lot of old icons and pop-up lists are now in the sidebar, which is almost exclusively text. Images, in general, are much more sparingly used— predominantly only with product links. I applaud the simplification of the site; but I think there are quite a few problems.

To my old eyes, the "Search" bar is way too invisible; the pale grays and vertical layout just make it disappear. Considering the Amazon.com search bar was essentially the only way I interacted with the homepage, this bugs me.

Also, the look of the new graphics is... questionable. The rounded corners everywhere look like an ugly copy of the Apple "Aqua" look from two years ago; the light gray color scheme with white "cut-out" text and icons are hard to read and discern; the new orange is too distracting and attracts my eye away from what I want; the way every freakin' clickable highlights or responds when you mouse over (especially the "Amazon" logo if you're not on the main page!) drives me absolutely bonkers.

Contrast the new look with this snapshot of the page from July (courtesy of the Wayback Machine), and you'll see the difference. I find the old one, while certainly due for an update, had a distinct look that made me feel I was at a designed site; the new look is as crowded and generic as your average poorly-designed storefront. Too much clutter, not enough personality.

Not all bad, but far from great. Give 'er a Round 2, Bezos.


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* I love that this page has no "Title" setting— the web broswer literally just displays the web address in the title bar. Classy. [⇪]