Projects — Alex Kim Design

^{^{eBay: Product Discovery Page

A fresh approach to product discovery on eBay}}

^{^{Problem
eBay is seen as a space for buyers who know exactly what they want, rather than a platform for browsing and discovering new items, thus limiting its potential for product exploration and inspiration.

Opportunity
By introducing a curated product discovery page, we can reposition eBay from a destination for specific shopping needs to a platform for unexpected product finds.}

^{Role..................Design Lead, Ads/Recommendations Team
Partners...........Alyssa Danesh (Product Manager), Anas Bouzoubaa (Engineer)
Field.................Research, Prototyping, UX/UI Design, Visual Design, Design Systems
Platforms.........Android, iOS
Date..................Q4 2022-Q2 2023}}

^{^{A. Research and Customer Insights

We wanted to learn how our younger audiences, primarily Gen-Z and Millennials, like to find new products, or inspiration, on eBay and what they think about the platform. To do this, we partnered with our design research team, who conducted in-depth, remote interviews with 9 participants based in the U.S. The participants shared their phone screens and walked us through how they would begin browsing for an item within the eBay app. We learned the following:}}

^{A1. Buyers perceive eBay as a mission-based marketplace, not a place to be inspired}^{^{Participants come to eBay for specific purchases, not to be inspired.

Buyers come to eBay to find the best deal for what they’re looking for and leave.}}

^{A2. Buyers find eBay’s recommendations to be irrelevant to their search parameters} ^{^{Buyers want to see items that retain their original search parameters and help them narrow in on their search.

Buyers want to feel there’s a human touch to what’s being recommended.}}

^{A3. Buyers want photo-driven searches that they can sort and filter through}^{^{Buyers wanted an organized grid of photos when browsing (ex. Instagram, Pinterest, Google, etc.)

They want larger photos and grids in the layout, but need more information to engage with item}}

^{^{B. User Goals

Once we had our customer insights, we worked on mapping out the user goals and objectives to guide the work}}

^{B1. Buyers know how to get to a curated product discovery page from an Item Details page.}^{^{Ex. I want to find products related to a specific item, or a specific set of items, on the Item Details page. Where can the user go to access this feature and experience?}}

^{B2. The curated product discovery page should reflect and load recommendations similar to the item the user is interested in.}
^{^{Ex. I really like this cashmere sweater. I want to see this in different styles and colors, so I can find the cashmere sweater of my dreams.}}

^{B3. As buyers scroll down the page, recommendations should get narrower and encourage conversion.}^{^{Ex. By the time I’ve scrolled down to the bottom of this page, I want to find something that I want. In short, the more I scroll through results, the closer I should get to the item I want.}}

^{^{C. Design}}

^{^{D. Design Explorations}}

^{^{E. SPECS Handoff to Engineers}}
^{^{Once designs have been reviewed and approved by the Ads Design Leadership team, I would work on a separate SPECS file within Figma to hand off to the engineering team, so that they can implement the new features within eBay’s platform.}}

^{^{F. Next Steps}}
^{^{Although the design specs have been handed off to engineering, with an expected product release slated for early Q2 of 2024, the project is currently in a limbo state. This is due to ongoing changes and shifts across the company, including the recent tech layoffs. Despite these challenges, this feature remains on the roadmap for release on native in Q2 of 2024.}}