New eBay homepage is still not there (although on the right track) August 15, 2007
Posted by jay in : Technology, Usability , trackbackI landed tonight on eBay’s new home page (they are testing new versions and making it more personalized) and was a bit surprised/lost in the first minute.
Although the direction eBay took is right and the page is better organized and much cleaner and with less clutter compared to the old one (clutter is one of eBay’s home page trademarks :)) I think that too many elements were moved from their original location making it somewhat difficult for existing/loyal users to find their way.
Some of the elements that were moved are now in non-standard locations compared to other high traffic web sites, making the orientation of average Internet users difficult. For example: The welcome and register buttons in center-low right area (vs. upper right corner in many cases), the “What’s Hot” was buried below the fold close to the bottom of the page (power feature that should be better highlighted). In addition, the page is longer and require the user to scroll down more if he/she wants to see all the elements on the page.
One thing that I do like and think is a smart move in order to increase the number of searches/products being browsed is the horizontal layout of the categories at the upper area in a hotspot.
Bottom line, I think eBay should continue to test and optimize. Their new home page still does not fully work for me.
BTW, one page eBay should redesign & improve is “My eBay” and the preference page. I was trying to setup IM Alerts earlier today and had to look really hard for this option. Defining the “Send alert X minutes prior to end of auction” alert would be a nice feature as well.
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Technorati Tags: eBay, Homepage, Website design, Usability
