Scaling UX-Driven Advertising at Amazon: Designing Interactive, Data-Informed Ad Solutions Across Global Markets
In this case study, I highlight my role as an Interaction Design Lead and UX Operations Manager in Amazon Advertising. Tasked with helping establish Amazon's advertising presence in Bangalore, I played a key role in setting up UX and creative processes for visual and interactive ads across Amazon's global marketplaces, including the US, UK, EU, and Japan. This unique position in an e-commerce advertising platform allowed me to leverage my UX expertise to develop a user-centered approach to digital advertising at scale—something rarely encountered in traditional ad agencies or product studios. The role involved working closely with stakeholders worldwide to align on UX and creative standards, developing ad products informed by data-backed insights, and ensuring the highest standards of visual design and user engagement.
Objective
To build an e-commerce advertising model within Amazon's platform by defining a seamless UX strategy and creative processes, while also crafting data-driven visual guidelines that would support rapid execution, high performance, and consistent quality across global campaigns.
UX-Centric Design and Process
Scalable UX Patterns
Developing Scalable UX Patterns for Ad Products Recognizing recurring patterns in high-performing campaigns, I led the development of data-backed UX and visual guidelines for Amazon's advertising products. By focusing on user-centered design principles, I created guidelines that enabled the team to produce consistent, high-quality ads efficiently. This allowed both internal teams and external brand clients to align quickly on best practices for Amazon's ad products, from desktop banners to mobile display ads.
UX Lens
Campaign Execution with a UX Lens We worked on a broad range of campaigns across industries like consumer goods, entertainment, and electronics. By applying UX principles to each campaign, we designed interactive and highly engaging ads that integrated seamlessly with Amazon's platform while emphasizing performance. I reviewed each ad design with a focus on visual consistency, usability, and user engagement, optimizing interactive elements like star ratings, reviews, and discounts to enhance user experience.
E-Commerce Integration
Customized Brand Pages with E-Commerce Integration I led the creation of custom e-commerce-centric branding pages for Amazon's clients, serving as branded stores within the marketplace. Each page was crafted to highlight a client's products and identity while integrating e-commerce features that simplified the shopping journey. Designed with modular UX principles, these pages provided an immersive brand experience while maintaining Amazon's usability standards, catering to the unique needs of each client.
Proprietary Devices
User Experience Design for Proprietary Devices Working with Amazon's FireTV and Kindle devices presented unique UX challenges, as the interfaces varied greatly by device. I collaborated with engineering to define responsive design guidelines that adapted to screen differences, ensuring a consistent experience for users across Amazon's platforms, including wake-screen ads for Kindle and on-screen ads for FireTV.
Scalable UX processes
Establishing UX and Visual Guidelines for Consistency and Efficiency Building a scalable UX system required defining both visual and functional guidelines that teams across regions could follow. I developed content and production guidelines that streamlined ad creation, ensuring that designers and production teams had a clear framework to follow. This resulted in faster execution times, higher ad quality, and enhanced UX for Amazon's users.
Team management
Training and Mentoring in UX and Visual Consistency As I transitioned into a team management role, I focused on building a strong team culture centered on UX best practices. Training my team in UX and visual consistency, I instilled a user-centered approach in each designer. Through structured onboarding and continuous mentoring, I enabled the team to deliver engaging ad experiences that aligned with Amazon's high standards for performance and user engagement.
Challenges
E-commerce-Focused UX
Amazon's ad products needed to fit smoothly within a larger marketplace ecosystem. The challenge was to create ads that balanced brand identity with seamless integration into Amazon's UX, maintaining a consistent user experience across the entire platform.
Innovative UX Solutions in a High-Volume Environment
Unlike agency work, Amazon's advertising relied on delivering campaigns for diverse clients at scale. This demanded scalable UX and visual design solutions that could drive high performance while aligning with Amazon's standards.
Rapid Development Cycles
With tight timelines and a need for iterative experimentation, ad products had to be adaptable and measurable, emphasizing speed without sacrificing quality.
Cross-Team Coordination
Working with teams across multiple regions required coordinated UX processes to standardize ad quality and ensure a cohesive global experience.
Key Learnings and Impact
User-Centric Advertising Solutions
This experience reinforced the power of UX in advertising, allowing me to design with a focus on user interaction, usability, and performance. The approach helped Amazon's clients achieve measurable results while improving the overall user experience on the platform.
Global Team Coordination
Working within Amazon's global team was invaluable, teaching me how to implement UX processes that work seamlessly across regions, cultures, and time zones.
Scaling UX in E-commerce
Designing for Amazon's platform required a deep understanding of e-commerce UX, as well as performance-driven design thinking. This unique position allowed me to contribute to and learn from UX processes at one of the world's largest marketplaces.
Applying Visual Design for Optimal Performance
My role gave me the opportunity to refine my visual review skills by establishing design guidelines that emphasized both aesthetic appeal and functional performance, enhancing ad engagement across all campaigns.