Amazon Transparency

Amazon Transparency helps brands reduce counterfeit risk, build customer trust, and create a more verifiable product experience across the purchase and post-purchase journey.

Summary: As the sole UX designer for the Transparency organization, I led design across customer-facing, seller-facing, and internal tools that supported product authentication at scale. My work spanned strategy, research, prototyping, testing, and refinement, helping translate a complex anti-counterfeiting program into clear experiences for brands, customers, and Amazon teams.

Role & ownership

I was the Senior and only UX Designer for the Transparency organization, partnering with 14 Product and Program Managers and 20+ Engineers. I helped shape how Transparency showed up across the ecosystem, from brand tools to seller workflows to customer-facing touchpoints on Amazon.com.

Transparency portal: Designed the web experience used by brands such as Microsoft and Samsung to onboard products, order and print Transparency codes, access dashboards, and manage brand-specific operations.
Seller Central: Extended the seller experience with Transparency product authentication features that fit into existing Amazon seller workflows.
Fulfillment Centers: Designed UX for authentication tools embedded in internal warehouse systems, where speed, clarity, and accuracy were essential.
Amazon.com: Integrated Transparency into customer touchpoints, including detail pages, trust messaging, and the Amazon Lens scanning flow.

The Problem

Low customer awareness and weak trust signals

Transparency had a strong anti-counterfeiting promise, but that value was not obvious enough in the customer experience. The challenge was to bring meaningful trust signals into high-visibility moments without adding friction or confusion. I helped define the language, flows, and visual treatments needed to make the program understandable, credible, and worth engaging with.

Research & Discovery

Surveying the landscape

I began with competitive analysis to understand how other companies presented anti-counterfeiting and verification features. That work surfaced patterns in trust-building, visual language, and call-to-action design, while also exposing gaps Amazon could address. The result was a clearer point of view on how Transparency should differentiate itself and where it could create more value for customers.

Themes

A common theme across the analysis was the use of familiar iconography and similar color palettes, which contributed to building trust with users.

Only half of the apps included a Call-to-action. In the shopping journey, this can be an opportunity to enhance the customer experience, not just a dead-end.

View full image

Early framing and experimentation

Working closely with the Product Manager, I used Lean Canvas to structure the opportunity, frame assumptions, and align the team around a sharper problem statement. This fit well with Amazon’s writing culture and helped turn a broad anti-counterfeiting initiative into design decisions the team could actually test.

Design Process

Prototype

I translated early ideas into user flows and prototypes that could be shared across teams, reviewed with stakeholders, and tested with customers. Prototyping became the bridge between abstract strategy and real-world feedback, helping the team align faster and learn earlier.

Transparency landing page

Prototype

Variants

Amazon Lens (scanning CX)

Prototype

I'm so sorry, this Ionic Framework app and PDF is only available on Desktop and Tablet devices.

Validation & Insights

Customer Insights

I led discovery and validation using UserTesting.com, running 366 unmoderated and 6 moderated sessions across the US, UK, and DE. Using the interactive prototype above, I tested comprehension, content clarity, and the value of the Amazon Lens experience. This work helped the team move from assumptions to evidence, especially around messaging and trust cues.

Select quotes
"The scanner is excellent for verification purposes and offers additional opportunities for future enhancements."_{— Participant 6}
"It's compelling when there's a problem, and I need proof to decide if I need to escalate the issue. This way, I don’t have to call the call center._{— Participant 3}

What we learned

The strongest finding was that the initial message, “Verify with Transparency,” was too vague on its own. Once participants saw progressive explanation and understood how the program could help them verify a product, sentiment improved significantly. That insight directly shaped the final content strategy and how the experience introduced value over time instead of expecting immediate understanding.

Sentiment aggregation

View Google Sheet

My research tools & platforms

UserTesting.com• Moderated 1:1 interviews
• Unmoderated surveys
• Prototype walkthrough + questionnaire

Qualtrics• Complex, branching surveys
• Studies requiring statistical significance

Eye tracking• Used to compare stated preferences with actual behavior
View a related evaluation I conducted for Buyer Risk Prevention

Mechanical Turk• Integrated for automated incentive payments

In-person sessions• One-on-one interviews
• Roundtable discussions

Final Design

Finalizing the experience

Using feedback from interviews, surveys, and leadership reviews, I refined the experience to improve:

Meaningful content and clearer explanations
Accessibility
Product owner page feedback
Iconography updates
Alignment with Amazon design system branding

Impact

Results of the work

My work on Search, Detail, and Progress Tracker pages, along with the Amazon Lens experience and content design, contributed to measurable improvements for products enrolled in the Transparency program.

Outcome: By making the program easier to understand and more credible in context, the experience helped strengthen trust signals and improve customer behavior in key moments of the journey.

Decrease in customer returns

Increase in purchase rates

Growth expected in product scans

Expected repurchase rates