it’s on the list
DESIGNING FOR AMAZON WISHLIST — HEARTING AND THE LAUNCH OF IDEA LISTS
ROLE
ux designer, collaborator, executor
TEAM
Kate Dixon, design manager
Allison Boyd, ux design
Jingwen Cao, ux design
Rachel Hungerford, reseach
Bryan Liu, product manager
Jordan Metzner, product manager
Overview
In collaboration with Amazon’s Interesting Finds team, our goal was to explore innovative ways for customers to save and organize items they love. By creating a streamlined experience for building and sharing curated lists, we aimed to enhance both customer inspiration and engagement. This project would ultimately lead to the launch of Amazon Idea Lists, a feature that allows influencers and everyday users alike to create, organize, and share item collections for inspiration.
Customer Problem
Many customers, particularly influencers, found it challenging to organize their favorite products in one place on Amazon and often used external platforms to curate collections. Customers wanted a way to save, organize, and revisit items effortlessly, while influencers desired tools to create engaging, shareable collections directly on Amazon. The existing wishlist feature was primarily built for personal use, lacking the curation and customization options required for inspiring others and engaging a broader audience.
Business Opportunity
Creating a collection feature with added flexibility and shareability presented Amazon with the opportunity to increase customer engagement and inspire purchase intent through curated lists. This tool would not only foster a stronger connection between influencers and their followers within the Amazon ecosystem but also encourage product discovery and higher conversion rates. By giving influencers a powerful tool to share their favorite items, Amazon could drive traffic to the platform, increase average order value, and establish itself as a go-to destination for inspiration-driven shopping.
Process
To kick off the project, we conducted an intensive week-long design sprint with cross-functional collaboration. Designers, product managers, researchers, and technologists immersed themselves in a fast-paced, iterative workflow focused on understanding user behaviors and pain points around saving and organizing products. The sprint began with a review of existing research on how customers save, collect, and share products, setting the stage for brainstorming new solutions.
Solution
A standout concept from this sprint was the introduction of curated list templates, simplifying how users create collections. Later refined and launched as Amazon Idea Lists, the feature empowered users to easily build and share collections with others. To streamline the process, we implemented smart search suggestions: when adding products, the system automatically generated search terms based on the list’s title and description, surfacing relevant products and allowing customers to quickly add items without navigating to individual product pages.
Impact
The Amazon Idea Lists feature was well-received, providing users with a more intuitive and efficient way to curate and share product collections. By automating parts of the list-building process, we helped influencers and other users focus on creating inspiring and relevant lists while reducing friction in product discovery and collection building. This solution helped Amazon meet the needs of its users while supporting influencers in creating content that drives meaningful engagement and conversions on the platform. Idea Lists became a building block of the Amazon Influencer Program and their curated pages.
LO-FI PROTOTYPE AND USER FLOW FOR THE CREATION OF AN IDEA LIST
CREATING AND ADDING TO AN IDEA LIST
ADDING TO A LIST FROM WITHIN
Making it easier to create idea lists - adding products from within a list would pull terms from the List’s name and description and generate search terms and product search results for that term. This would allow customers to quickly add multiple items to a list without having to visit multiple detail pages.
EDITING A LIST, ADDING COMMENTS ON PRODUCTS AND PUBLISHING LISTS
