Empower (Amazon) Designers around the world to build awesome experiences
We designed and built a modular page-building system on top of Amazon’s CMS, enabling creative teams to launch rich, responsive landing pages without engineering support.
What started as a pilot became the global foundation for interactive campaign experiences.
Amazon Designers were stuck in rigid, templated layouts with little visual leeway.
Back in 2014, Amazon’s internal CMS, an in-house, backend-optimized content repository, was excellent at feeding product data and algorithmic inputs but lacked flexible design controls.
Technical + Product Evolution
Rather than replacing the CMS, we took an augmentation-first approach—essentially turning it into a bespoke, designer-friendly front-end overlay.
Here’s what we did:
Modular Box Models – Defined abstract “container” components (rows, cards, media) that encoded layout logic, style rules, and responsive behavior.
API-layer Integration – These boxes communicated via lightweight JSON with the CMS backend, allowing real-time data retrieval, content mapping, and rendering.
Responsive by Design: The system auto-adjusted across breakpoints; no need for separate mobile/desktop versions.
Performance-safe – Leveraged AWS CloudFront-style caching and had fallbacks within the CMS content delivery pipeline, minimizing latency
Our first use case was a timely test with the Avengers 2014 campaign, analyzing front-end load times, heatmap activity, and scroll depth.
The system performed flawlessly: fast, flexible, and visually rich.
From Proto to Product
Armed with a successful proof-of-concept, we partnered with product and engineering to build a beta version of our internal layout tool. It included:
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A visual composer interface that abstracted away CMS complexity—no code or markup needed
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Built-in performance and device compliance checks
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A phased launch plan: pilot → feedback → iteration → global internal rollout
Designers across Amazon’s markets quickly adopted it.
This became the core engine for creating interactive, high-conversion landing pages on Amazon, without deviating from backend delivery standards.
Were we successful?
Until today, interactive landingpages on Amazon are being built by this tool.
The Results
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Global rollout: Up until today, this tool is being used by Amazon teams across the US, Europe, and Asia
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Design autonomy: Enabled designers to create high-performing, interactive campaign pages with no front-end dev required
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Product foundation: Became the underlying UX infrastructure for branded landing experiences at Amazon
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Technical efficiency: Reduced dev cycles and improved time-to-market for campaigns
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Commercial impact: Directly helped Amazon secure millions in advertising spend, giving brand partners confidence in the visual and performance quality of their campaign pages