Web Evaluation Of Ebay
www.ebay.com
Team Members:
Afriannoor Miradinata
Benjamin Wyeth
Ling Chen
Yao Du
Procedure:
-­The evaluation was divided into 4 parts:
1.) Overview/background
2.) Navigation/Searching
3.) User account/Usability Evaluation
4.) Buying options/interface Evaluation.
-­Each member both presented their assigned section in class and wrote their evaluation to include in the
final written report.
-­Details of the scenario and task(s) used to evaluate the site: the scenarios and Evaluation results &
discussion to address the above questions are included in part 3 and part 4.
-­Evaluation Criteria are included in part 2.
Table of Contents
1. Overview and Background-­-­-­-­Ben
2. Navigation and Searching-­-­-­-­Yao
3. Buying options and Evaluation-­-­-­-­Afriannoor
4. User account and Usability Evaluation-­-­-­-­Ling
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Background
Ebay was founded in 1995, the same year that the Internet became commercial. The growth of this
online auction site from a small side project to an internet behemoth is the ultimate archetype of what is
possible in the era of connectivity ushered in by the creation of the World Wide Web.
Ebay was founded as a side project called AuctionWeb by French-­born Iranian-­American computer
programer Pierre Omidyar . Omidyar created the site, it is reported, as a way for his wife to find, buy and
sell PEZ candy dispensers. Omidyar is fond of relating the story of one of the first purchases made on the
site: a broken laser pointer for $14.83. Shocked that someone would spend that much for a broken product,
Omidyar reached out to the buyer to confirm that they were aware that the laser pointer was broken. The
buyer responded that he was, in fact, a collector of broken laser pointers. This exchange exemplifies the
powerful marketplace created by ebay: people around the world have stuff and need stuff and ebay provided
a forum where they could come together on a much larger scale than anything available previously.
Though the site began gaining traction from it’s inception, things remained relatively slow for the
first two years. However, 1997 was a landmark year. Not only did the company change their name from
AuctionWeb to eBay-­-­ short for Echo Bay, the name of Omidyar’s consulting business-­-­ but the number of
auctions jumped 700% in January of 1997 alone.
Today, millions of auctions happen are running every day on ebay, and while this does generate
significant revenue for the compnay, it’s not the only venture adding to the ebay coffers. A major part of
ebay’s growth strategy, much like other tech giants, has been to acquire and absorb other similar sites and
services, and to aquire additional technology holdings. Ebay’s roster of acquisitions is fairly impressive
including such power players as Skype, Paypal, Rent.com and more.
This diversification strategy has proven to be a successful one for ebay in that many of the other
sites and services are directly competing with ebay in the auction space are using software, payment
processes and other technologies owned by ebay.
Ebay has also successfully made the transition to being mobile-­smart. By developing smart and
intuitive mobile apps, they have managed to keep themselves and their products relevant in and
increasingly cluttered mobile market.
To this effect, David Spitz, COO of ChannelAdvisor, recently related the following anecdote in the
New York Times of an experience he had with ebay’s mobile app. “[I] was recently stopped at a traffic light
and the sun was bothering my eyes. By the time the light turned green, I had used my phone to order and
pay for sunglasses. This is what commerce anytime, anywhere means. It’s here.” Ebay’s “one-­click
payment method is revolutionizing the way app developers are thinking about mobile purchasing.
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The following diagram, though comparing ebay and amazon specifically, offers a brief glimpse of
what makes Ebay different from all the other auction and purchasing websites.
For the remainder of this report, we will evaluate the web version of ebay. For ease of
understanding, we’ve broken the evaluation into the following three segments: Navigation and Searching,
Buying options and Evaluation, and User account and Usability Evaluation. Each section will individually
address the three I’s: Information, Interaction and Interface.
Navigation and Searching
Information
Information contained on the website is current and accurate. The eBay search feature is very
organized with both categorical search and individual refinement available. Since both search features are
located either on the top or the side panel, the search function is easy to see and use. Category and
refinement are precise and clear. Take the item, “Djembe” a type of African drum. Search can be refined by
brand, region, condition, price, seller, selling format, item location, and shipping method. The returned
search results can also be refined by ebay’s built-­in sorting features including best match, sell ending time,
price, shipping, price, and distance. Items are very easy to scan because the main page uses a thumbnail
grid pattern design.
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Interaction
Navigation is easy to accomplish using features such as ”fill-­in-­the-­blanks search” and “pagination”
to view listings by a “clear entry points” navigation model. Feedback is immediate after entering the search,
refining the category, clicking on an item to view details. Social Feature includes both buyer and seller
accounts, buyers may send sellers emails to communicate. At times, it is difficult to narrow down a search
easily, given the large pool of items on sale internationally and great variety of item descriptions depending
on the seller.
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Interface
Graphics are attractive;; fonts match the website design and are easy to read. Colors match with
each other with theme colors of black and blue. Layout is clear and inviting. Pattern uses the “feature,
search, and browse”, page layout uses “list of items, module tabs” (auction, buy it now, and different sorting
methods). Graphics, fonts, colors, layout are consistent throughout the entire website. Overall, the site is
aesthetically attractive especially with the use of large pictures.
Buying Options:
Scenario:
A new daddy is looking for a stroller for his newborn. He has had some experiences doing
transactions with Amazon where most of the items have set prices. At this time, He wants to look at eBay,
a site that has a bidding price and set a price. He want to compare prices and find some really good deals
before purchasing a stroller. Being new to Ebay, he needs to go through the following steps to find the best
stroller for the best price:
1. He looks at the three important elements which are Browse, Search and Feature. He attempts to poke
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around in browse and finds that it shows a particular category, such as Fashion, Toys & Hobbies, and
Deals & Gifts. However, He is not exactly sure that this is the best way to find what he is looking for. So,
he decides to type words that describe the item in the Search box, and then click the Search button.
Finally, he finds thousands of images that describe specific items.
2: He attempts to narrow down all of these choices by using the sorting and filtering options in ebay. He is
able to filter results by clicking on the chunked information on the left side of the eBay page. He also
makes a comparison and gives a notion about the price and the item styles by look at in the center and the
right side of the eBay page.
3: He selects specific items. The eBay page immediately gives feedback to require him filling the
registration form and choosing the payment method. To complete the transaction, he must click the Pay
Now button that is the way to pay on eBay.
Evaluation and Discussion based on new buyer perspectives
Information : The information design of the eBay site is appropriate and predictable. The content
organization and the feature are effective and sustainable way to help users find information for completing
tasks. The eBay site usually informs users of errors, locations, changes in state, or actions,
Scannability
The eye quickly finds the feature, the browse and search options. These three elements are
standardized placement to make a successful site. The feature options have interesting images and
headlines to “hook and invite” buyers. The browse and search options are two ways to find desired items.
Organization and Clarity
In the blue box, the website has chunked information into pieces (e.g Brand, and Type ) and the
information is helpful and clear to digest by buyers.
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Accuracy -­ In the green box, the price is always up to date and the items are popular
Relevancy -­ In the red box, the items are always consistent with the theme of the page
Interaction: The interaction design of the eBay site is easy to access, understand, and use to facilitate
those actions. The feedback, navigation, and social feature are pretty standard for user actions.
Feedback
Feedback is immediately after the buyer’s action. There are two feedback ways that are a lightbox
feedback and a column feedback. The buyers cannot do something else before they complete the required
information.
Navigation
The site gives several options on how to navigate through the website. The buyers can be easy to
select a payment option and click “continue” to move on. However, the site does not provide a sequence
map that can tell the buyers where they are.
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Social Features
The site completely utilizes the email and the social networks to link buyers with their colleagues
for sharing information.
Interface:
The interface design of the eBay site is quite appealing. The eBay site design uses consistent
elements across different pages. The common elements were color, typeface, fonts, different size, and
arrangement of the text to help increase readability.
Color
The background color is always consistent with a white background, and the buttons use blue color
to attract the buyers’ eyes.
Font -­The Font is simple and easy to read by buyers
Layout -­ The site creates a sense of connection and uses gestalt principles of proximity and closer.
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User Accounts (buying/selling):
The following section is to view the website in the perspective of the buyers.
Scenario:
An experienced Ebay user needs a new headphone to replace the old one.The buyer wishes to
obtain a new one with really cheap price because she just needs an replaced one as soon as possible. The
buyer wishes to put some effect and time to look up a wireless headphone later on. Meanwhile, she needs
to get one that has the most basic function while searching for a better one later on.
●
The first task here is to get a very affordable earbuds with basic function as soon as possible first.
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The second task is to spend sometimes searching on a headphone that is wireless with more
functions but not necessarily affordable.
Task(s)
Step 1:
First task here is to look up the items that are affordable but also fit the description (earbuds). The
buyer will log in with a personal user ID and password and scan through the main page first. The buyer is an
experienced and a returning buyer who had searched similar items previously, the home page will show
items that match her latest search on the main page along with the “hot” items as the following image
shown. The most useful aspects of the listings on the homepage is that is very easy to scan. The
information that is presented is minimum but simple. The navigation follows the nature mapping, where the
search bar is at the top, categories on the side, and personal account (My summary) on the corner.
Step 2:
The main page provides some items that match the buyer’s previous search, but the user would
like to look up more similar items. This task can be simply done by typing in the keyword “Earbuds”.
Feedback is given immediately once the “search” button is clicked, the deserved items that match with the
keywords would show in a list as the following image shown.
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Step 3:
The items that match up the keyword are shown as thumbnail grid patterns as a default. The
pattern design is most useful because it shows a dense, but attractive presentation of large numbers of
product galleries that match the buyer’s searched keyword. The page interface only shows the images with
obvious clickable simple title. At the bottom of the page, Ebay uses pagination pattern to break up a very
long list into pages, so it can be loaded in no time. It is also useful because it allows the buyers to look for
a particular item by clicking the different page numbers.
However, the Ebay site allows buyers to have certain controllability to sort the listings in a more desired
pattern, such as
1.) Sortable listing: allows you to sort the listing by price, by bidding time, or so forth.
2.) Patterns: small multiples, list, or customs.
The results are shown as the following:
Certain Interfaces, which are similar to the controllability that mentioned above, might be easier for some
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buyers to read with alternative sizes and views. Graphics, fonts and layout are customizable for the buyers.
The features are shown as the following:
Buyers do not have to click into each listing. By hovering the cursor over the images, a zoom-­in
picture is shown as the following.
Since the main page is designed in the two-­panel selector pattern. Buyers can also look up items in
certain categories by clicking the categories on the left side of the page. The design is useful for buyers
who wish to narrow down the search.
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Step 3:
The buyer wishes to save some particular items for later. The buyer can save the item in My Ebay,
which is explained more details in the previous section.
Design Evaluation Criteria of the Site :
The site in general is very well designed and user friendly. The details are listed below:
Information:
The information/listings are presented in interactive graphic/pictures in which overview plus detail that focus
on parts of the listings, such as picture, price, bidding time remained, are showing.
●
Scannability: the extent to which users can easily view the content of the website in which the
Ebay site saved what you have been searching/following previously, and provides a clear view to
scan when you open up the page after you log in.
●
Clarity: to which the organization of the information allows the buyers to focus, the patterns of the
design of this website provide an overview plus a detailed graph / listing is shown on the front page
that offers the “big picture” of the listing, which allows users to browse through the content. The
default Thumbnail Grid pattern is also the most used graphic/images displayed for auction-­like
websites.
Interaction:
The website offers different interactive patterns that allow users to interact with the listings: sorting,
selecting, or more advanced editing if you are a seller.
●
Navigation: User-­Centered Navigation, the website uses mapping that are commonly used in other
auctions-­like, online shopping websites that allows buyers to use the previous knowledge and
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enable to shop away in a matter of a second. As a buyer, it is easy to accomplish the task, in this
case searching and buying a particular item.
●
Feedback: feedback is given immediately once I click the “search” button, the desired items that
match with the keywords would show in a list.
●
Controllability: Ebay allows buyers to control how you wish to sort the website, such as
1.) Sortable listing, which allows you to sort the listing by price, by bidding time, or so forth.
2.) Patterns: small multiples, list, or customs.
Conclusion
Overall, our group felt that ebay does a good job addressing the 3 I’s: Information, Interaction, and
Interface, in many aspects of their website. Their search and filter features are dynamic and intuitive, but
not perfect. The information is abundant and relatively easy to find, but the abundance of user-­generated
content makes it difficult to ensure that you find only those things that you are looking for. Their corporate
design is consistent, but again, they have little control over the user-­generated content.
In short, ebay does as well as can be expected for a site that handles the volume of
user-­generated content that they do. Are there flaws, of course! Are those flaws fatal to the success of
ebay? Clearly not.
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