eBay Evo initiative finally gives insight into testing, tweaking and recent design changes

[valueaddedresource]

If you been frustrated with eBay's constant changing of Seller Hub pages, listing form modules, "off-brand" graphics, obsession with adding more clicks to accomplish business critical workflows and new graphs and reports that are confusing or don't show the same granularity of information as you previously had - you'll likely be interested in reading all about eBay Evo, the evolution of eBay's global brand design.

https://innovation.ebayinc.com/tech/features/ebay-evo-the-evolution-of-ebays-brand-and-design-system...

The launch of eBay Evo marks a significant milestone, representing years of dedicated in-house work to deliver a cohesive story across our global experiences while allowing flexibility to adapt for local markets and audience relevance. This announcement is not just a reflection of past achievements but also a celebration of the path eBay is set to continue on, driving innovation and enhancing user experiences for years to come.

The ongoing evolution of eBay through the Evo initiative aims to keep the platform innovative and relevant to the needs of its users. This includes a continuous cycle of learning, product development, and enhancement to foster a delightful discovery experience for eBay enthusiasts globally. eBay's approach with Evo is to humanize and simplify interactions, making the platform more engaging and accessible to a broad audience...

...This initiative has culminated in the creation of the eBay Playbook, a comprehensive guide designed to empower our internal teams and agency partners with over 280 pages of guidance, more than 2,700 images and videos, and interactive tools for color selection, type testing, iconography, and accessibility.

Our strategy ensures consistency across our universe of touchpoints, enhances the shopping experience with a feeling of love and discovery, and puts our customers at the center of the eBay story. Our new brand strategy comes to life within a new creative platform: Things.People.Love.

There are some interesting things in that Playbook, showcasing eBay's design vision from colors, fonts, icons, and buttons to photography, graphics, "voice and tone", and of course, generative AI.

https://playbook.ebay.com/

The illustrations that some here in the community found to be "off-brand" are apparently designed to "express authentic connection and relatability."

https://playbook.ebay.com/foundations/illustration

Under "Design System" you'll find a lot of familiar things under "patterns" and "components" like form building, file uploads, bulk editing (many of the recent changes to Active Listings and other Seller Hub pages), buttons, badges, carousels, filters, pop ups, search bars, tabs, toggles and more - including the graphs and data visualization for the new ads dashboard and traffic report pages.

https://playbook.ebay.com/design-system

https://playbook.ebay.com/design-system/patterns

https://playbook.ebay.com/design-system/components

And of course, eBay Evo also touts the view item page as a shining example of their new, modern, simplified design - with a mockup that does not include any of the many distracting ads you'll find in the actual user experience. 🙄

Much of Evo is relatively harmless, like expanding color pallets and fonts or making modules have round corners instead of sharp angles, but even at that, you have to wonder if there weren't some more pressing technical issues those resources could have been directed toward and/or why eBay thought it would be a good idea to make some of these changes during the critical Q4 holiday selling season.

But it makes for a flashy press release and I guess that's something. 😂

[wastingtime101]

I did call that graphic out as "off brand" at the time because I hadn't seen any similar graphics across the site. (It was not a complaint, just an observation.)

But since that post, I've seen many similar illustrative graphics all over the site and the app - so I retract my previous "off brand" statement as it's no longer a stand-alone illustration.

I like a lot of the visual changes - rounded corners, etc. I dislike some of the visual changes (too much white space - ask me how much I hate the new biz policy view that takes up 1.5x-2x the space and requires scrolling when previously it was all on one page).

My complaints (and there have been many lately - my apologies to Devon/Kyle/Elizabeth for the countless tags and rants) are centered around:

- loss of business-essential functionality; function sacrificed for form (appearance)

- grossly inefficient changes to process; things taking exponentially longer; the countless click, click, click, click, click, click, click to select a single option

- unannounced business-impacting changes that are not centered around redesigns (like extending offer window)

- poorly thought-out programming, such as seller hub search will not search variation Custom label (SKU); tired of variations being an after-thought, or issues with photos due to bad design

[valueaddedresource]

@wastingtime101  I agreed the graphics seemed off brand at the time and also agree they are less so now that more of that style has been incorporated, though personally I'm not sure I'd go so far as to agree with eBay that they are particularly relatable or express authenticity....I know I'm not the target demographic but the gen-Zer in my house doesn't get it either. 😂

And definitely agree with your 4 points about what the biggest issues are.

[wastingtime101]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

 I'm not sure I'd go so far as to agree with eBay that they are particularly relatable or express authenticity....

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I disagree with "authenticity" I do agree with "relatable" - so much has geared towards illustration these days, and not just illustration, but that style of illustration.

Look at book covers. Look all over the place. Relatable because we see those types of illustrative graphics everywhere these days. Maybe "relatable" isn't the best word, but I'd say "recognition" and perhaps even triggering an emotion of "trust" because it's "familiar."

So yeah, I guess "familiar" is the word I'd go with, but that sounds more ordinary and rudimentary, less marketable, less of a buzz word than "relatable." haha

[dhbookds]

Sigh.......................

[valueaddedresource]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

 I'm not sure I'd go so far as to agree with eBay that they are particularly relatable or express authenticity....

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I disagree with "authenticity" I do agree with "relatable" - so much has geared towards illustration these days, and not just illustration, but that style of illustration.

Look at book covers. Look all over the place. Relatable because we see those types of illustrative graphics everywhere these days. Maybe "relatable" isn't the best word, but I'd say "recognition" and perhaps even triggering an emotion of "trust" because it's "familiar."

So yeah, I guess "familiar" is the word I'd go with, but that sounds more ordinary and rudimentary, less marketable, less of a buzz word than "relatable." haha

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@wastingtime101 I like "familiar" better and would be more inclined to agree with that - eBay should hire you to make their marketing speak less buzz-wordy and more relatable. 😂

Aside from a few of my pet peeves (like the pristine view item page mockups) and some of the issues you bring up about where the design really does make things less efficient or is missing critical data/functionality, ultimately I do think a lot of this stuff has probably been needed for a long time to freshen things up - and if nothing else it's interesting to see a little bit of the "why" behind what eBay is thinking with some of the design choices, even if it's a little heavy on the buzzwords or doesn't fit my personal aesthetic preferences.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@dhbookds LOL!

I think @dhbookds nailed my basic response with one word. 

Putting human hands in product photos to "humanize interactions"....that's what we're getting. LOL

I'm not opposed to a redesign. I'm just not sure I would have prioritized this above so many OTHER things.

And while I get the concept, the rounded corners,etc, etc, this is an overall redesign but it is far from radical....it is a change from the old ebay, yes, but it seems like it is a change that simply makes ebay as bland and predictable as all the other sites out there with rounded corners, and lots of white space, and those "fun" graphics.

But something REALLY different, something that would really highlight the Uniqueness of ebay, I don't see it.

In a recent You Tube video, eBert made a good point: Jamie is leaning into ebay's status as a "value stock" , that is, dividends and stock buy backs are the attraction for shareholders. This isn't a "growth" stock, where investors are looking for explosive business growth and rapid, huge stock price increases. As a result, Jamie---and the shareholders----are fine with slow and steady---really major changes generally entail added risk, and risk is to be avoided. I suspect this is one reason ebay has been slow in rolling out ebay Livestreaming....adding it quickly as a major component here could radically alter the status quo, and that could frighten shareholders. It's also one reason the Ads Business maintains steady growth, even if much of it is tied to simply finding new ways to add fees without adding sales.  Incremental revenue growth, but do nothing that risks upsetting the apple cart. Of course, this also means putting a lot of money into buybacks and dividends rather than into the business itself.

[wastingtime101]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

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Aside from a few of my pet peeves (like the pristine view item page mockups) and some of the issues you bring up about where the design really does make things less efficient or is missing critical data/functionality, ultimately I do think a lot of this stuff has probably been needed for a long time to freshen things up

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100% agree and I've been saying for a while that there were some ancient pages on eBay that needed updating - maybe yes maybe no for function but definitely for appearance.

Not all international sites were in line with the .com site, so they're cleaning that up which is good.

Edit: I'm also sure a lot of the changes were necessary in terms of outdated tech, perhaps things that could not migrate, had to be re-done.

A lot of it is/was needed. BUT ... and that's a big but ... there are serious issues with trying to force a mobile experience on website, the loss of function, and other issues I called out above. There are redesigned pages that could have had a nearly identical look, but with 10x better functionality than what they went with.

Unlike most on this forum, I don't want things the way they were. I want a new experience. But I want it to WORK (in more ways than one). And many key aspects of what they went with do not work, and that does not mean broken/tech issue, it means UX not meeting business needs (for large or hobby seller).

[dhbookds]

Two things.......finally, come to mind........

If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull........and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI_Oe-jtgdI

I'm not opposed to change.......bettering the site is always welcome........but as you say, functionality is the most important thing....and that recognition, in all that gobbledygook, seems to be missing.......