It's the Simple Things

So, Amazon.com is the world's leader in usability. They test everything, and retest, and retest. I've known places that all they want to do is emulate Amazon. A friend told me about his boss who:

• printed out the Amazon homepage
• crossed out the Amazon logo
• wrote in their company's name
• handed it to my friend and said: "Make this!"

So what happens when Amazon gets it wrong?

I could be going off on a rant here (to quote Dennis Miller), but they do so many things so well, why can't they have a login that just logs you in? Since so much of the experience is about your previous shopping at Amazon, every page/screen/section has something to do with you and your history. But you can't just log in.

Blogger has a log in. It is in the upper left of the window. That one, up there. On this screen.

Some sites, the login is all you can do. Take Penn's implementation of Zimbra, for example. Just a login.

Josh Porter (and others) talk about inviting your users in, teasing them with the premise of the site and getting you to log in. They point to sites like LinkedIn, Geni, and others. But on all those sites, you can click a link to log in.

Amazon has a "click this link to log in" link, along the top (along with a "Hello" that turns into a "Hello, Consuela" after you log in). But you'll notice that the link says "Personalized Recommendations" and thats where you go after you log in. There's also a "My Account" link, but how can it be My Account when I haven't logged in yet?

It seems like a minor point, but it irritates me every time I go.

What do you think?