Item detail page desktop redesign
“Be flexible”
The item detail page is a centerpiece in eBay that almost all buyers go through to make a purchasing decision. It is also a page that holds every piece of information for a variety of products and supports all stages of each buyer’s journey.
Buyer’s journey
eBay customers use the item detail page to learn about the item, compare with different listings and/or convert to purchase.
PROJECT Overview
25% of our users shop on their desktop, especially when looking for products they were unfamiliar with, if the product was expensive, or if the product was physically large. Yet our current design has been optimized incrementally for the last 10 years without any full framework update.
GOAL
We want to create a flexible framework that elevates critical information, enables discovery and tells a cohesive story without duplication.
CHALLENGE
The item detail page has about 100 variants - multiple use cases and different regions. There are many stakeholders for one page.
role
Designer
(2 designers, 1 design manager, 1 PM)
User Research, UX, Interaction, Visual design, Prototyping & Testing
May 2020 - March 2021
Old design
RESEARCH INSIGHTS & FINDINGS
Based on data and user pain points from previous research we have 4 main user problems: Usability, Trust, Flexibility and Architecture. Our page is too long, the layout is outdated, critical information is hard to find, users can’t trust sellers, seller html within the page is creating chaos, etc…
We also went through our competitors to find what is industry standard: Flexible and simple 2-3 column layout and clear hierarchy on information architecture.
“When I think of eBay I just think of outdated. I think of like a little bit untrusted, I think about like lower end.”
DESIGN STRATEGY
From here we created a strategy and design tenets. Our approach is to build a simple industry standard framework and then create modules that can flex from standard to bespoke vertical experiences. To test, we would launch a new experience that users can opt-in and out and collect feedback as we progress.
DESIGN
BUILDING A FRAMEWORK
I explored framework options using only blocks to help creating a consistency between mobile and desktop. I then created a set that can flex between different categories: from the most information dense item to the most image heavy.
We have just pitched our concept to the leadership and are now exploring how the new framework can flex to support different features: Ads, cart/checkout, similar items, etc.
*Once we have made a decision on the framework, I handed off to another designer in my team for the second phase: UI and Visuals.
New design (Live)
We have successfully launched the new desktop design in 2023 and is performing well.