Role
Product Designer
Timeline
5 Weeks
This project was completed as part of the User Experience Design Certificate at Concordia University, centered on improving an existing mobile app experience through user research and iterative design.
Amazon’s app is fast and familiar, yet hesitation appears at key decision points in the shopping journey. Understanding where trust breaks down revealed opportunities to reduce friction and strengthen confidence in completing purchases.
Inconsistent or unclear trust signals across sellers, fulfillment, and reviews create uncertainty during product evaluation. This lack of clarity disrupts decision-making and contributes to hesitation, cart abandonment, and reduced conversions.
Solution
Solution
Build Seller Trust
Seller Details Upfront: Displays seller and fulfillment info on product cards to reduce confusion for third-party listings.
Trusted Seller Badge: Highlights vetted third-party sellers, helping users quickly identify reliable listings.
Trusted Results Filter: Limits search results to Amazon or trusted sellers, reducing exposure to risky options.
Seller Performance Section: Shows key stats—such as return and resolution rates—so users can assess credibility at a glance.
Solution
Support Better Decisions
Clear Brand Visibility: Displays brand names directly on product cards to help users recognize legitimate listings and avoid misleading ones.
Seller Snapshot Dropdown: Provides a collapsible summary of seller metrics, allowing users to check credibility without leaving the product page.
Review Insights Section: Highlights recurring themes and representative quotes, making it easier to evaluate sentiment without reading every review.
Solution
Improve Purchase Clarity
Shifted Seller Context: Moves seller, fulfillment, and delivery information above the price, ensuring users see key details before committing.
Price Insights Section: Displays average and historical trends, helping users evaluate value and confirm confident purchase decisions.
Empathize
Empathize
Empathize
User Research
Five qualitative interviews were conducted to better understand the factors shaping how users browse, evaluate, and decide what to purchase throughout the Amazon shopping journey.
Research Goals:
• Identify friction during the shopping experience.
• Uncover emotional drivers behind product selection.
• Determine which product details most influence purchase decisions.
Empathize
Research Findings
Interviews revealed recurring uncertainty around seller credibility, review authenticity, and shipping reliability. These doubts shaped browsing behavior, leading users to avoid listings perceived as unclear or risky.
“If the company name looks weird or there’s barely any reviews, I just move on.”
“It’s hard to tell what’s legit and what’s just marketed well. I don’t always believe the badges."
"I get that reviews help, but sometimes they feel fake too. I don’t always know what to trust."
Key Insight:
Uncertainty about product information and credibility weaken trust and reduce confidence in purchase decisions.
Define
Define
Persona
Rachel shops with intent but second-guesses anything that feels uncertain. She moves efficiently until seller details, reviews, or listings raise doubt. When confidence breaks, she abandons the purchase and looks elsewhere.
Key Insight:
Rachel represents a high-intent shopper vulnerable to hesitation. When trust cues are missing or inconsistent, even motivated users disengage.
Define
Problem and How Might We Statements
Rachel doesn’t struggle to find products; she struggles to trust them. When details feel incomplete or sellers appear unreliable, confidence fades and momentum stalls — even with strong purchase intent.
Ideate
Ideate
Competitor Analysis
A review of Walmart, Etsy, and Temu highlighted how seller identity, review quality, and fulfillment transparency shape user trust. These core elements directly influence how products are evaluated and how confidently users decide to purchase.
Key Insight:
Competing platforms display partial trust cues like seller bios or shipping details, but few present them clearly or consistently enough to reinforce confident purchases.
Ideate
Sketching
Early sketches explored how trust cues could appear across search, product, and seller pages without overwhelming users. These explorations helped identify where seller details, reviews, and fulfillment information most effectively reduced hesitation.
Prototype
User Flows
User flows mapped critical decision points where trust either broke down or strengthened. This process clarified where reassurance mattered most and guided the placement of trust cues to align with familiar shopping behaviors.
Prototype
Interactive Prototype
The interactive prototype brought trust-focused concepts to life through layout, copy, and interaction. Seller details, review filters, and fulfillment information were designed for quick scanning and clear reassurance throughout the shopping flow.
Test
User Testing
Four moderated sessions tested how users responded to trust cues across search results, product pages, and seller information. The goal was to observe what built confidence, what raised doubts, and how decisions unfolded in real time.
Test
Test Findings
User testing revealed consistent patterns in how trust cues shaped behavior, exposing key moments where confidence rose or fell.
"I didn’t even realize it was from a different seller. That would’ve made me think twice.”
“I don’t read every review — I just skim to see if people are saying the same thing.”
"If I have to dig for the info, I usually just go back and pick something else."
The process highlighted trust-building successes and revealed opportunities for refinement. Minimal, well-placed interventions proved more effective than complex features, showing subtle design changes boost user confidence and decision-making.
