Amazon.com has often been known as a pioneer in online usability and user experience. Their ability to organize massive amounts of products and customize product selections have been used as examples in countless books and talked about across the web.

But yesterday, I had to question what was going on at Amazon.com. Amazon released a new temporary home page to feature their new Kindle Fire and the reduced price of previous Kindles. They assumed the majority of visits would capture users there to purchase the Kindle. But in doing so, they excluded everyone else. They removed the "comfort" and "reliability" of the Amazon.com home page. Gone was the familiar orange "Shop by Department" button, gone was the side navigation of categories that helps users browse and find products, gone was the customized product section for returning users. Everything had changed.

October 5, 2011	October 6, 2011

It makes me wonder if the whole home page shake up was worth it. I know Amazon has sold record amounts of Kindles, but what about other sales? Other products? What about their users?

The good news is the drastic change didn't last long. Today, Amazon updated their home page and reverted back to their comfortable, user friendly ways.

Do you think it was worth it?