Amazon.com Soon To Launch New Navigation

We’re getting reports from folks that Amazon is about to roll out a new navigation scheme. Some people already are part of their test audience and now seeing it.

Amazon’s New Look

What’s notable is they ridded themselves of the the old tabbed interface, which goes back to Amazon’s initial designs.

The new vertical orientation is shorter, but also has hierarchical menus. This is probably the only way they could take their huge inventory of categories and put them in one place.

Amazon’s Current Category Navigation (for most folks)

We’ll have to see how effective the flyouts are. Traditionally, they are something we recommend designers avoid, since users decide before they move their mouse, thereby not seeing the flyout contents when making their decision.

However, as with any of our recommendations, you need to try it with your users before you can really know for sure.

It’s interesting, as Amazon hides their categories in flyouts, electronics competitor NewEgg.com launches a redesign with their navigation fully exposed.

NewEgg.com Redesign with fully exposed navigation