[IxDA Discuss] [iai-members] eBay redesign

[Tom Dell'Aringa]

On 6/19/07, Vermette, Joan <Joan.Vermette at fmr.com> wrote:

> And so...they're saying that people actually navigate eBay through the
> category listings?


I do a lot of searches on ebay too, I have a few searches saved for that
very reason. But I do use the categories as a filter. If I am looking for
star wars figurines, I would probably enter that (probably a more specific
string like "kenobi star wars figurine") but even with that specific string
(I actually only got 4 items) there are still 4 categories to choose from.
If I got lots of results, I'd filter using category.

That said, based on my own use patterns:  the first thing I'd do to fix
> eBay is to put search front-and-center and make it easier for people to
> learn how to build intelligent queries.


Amen to that. Just adding "kenobi" and "figurine" reduced the results from
1000's to 4. They need to educate users more on how to search. For awhile
there they had two search boxes, which was annoying as all get out. All the
junk on the homepage is useless to me. I've have never, ever, clicked on one
of those auctions or ads. When you come to ebay you know what you are
looking for. What are the chances of it being one of those 10-20 items on
the homepage? Very small indeed. There has to be a better way to utilize the
homepage that is more personalized to me.

Tom